Fox News has one, now Sky News Australia is going to have one — yes, business channels are the new must-have accessory for a Murdoch-owned 24-hour news channel. When will Osterley play host to a business channel? They have got some extra space, I seem to recall…
Here’s the Competition Commission rejecting Sky, as it relates to TV news:
We do not think that this shareholding is sufficient to give rise to competition concerns in other areas we’ve looked at such as advertising and TV news provision. As far as the media public interest consideration is concerned, we do not think there is sufficient evidence that the acquisition will have an adverse effect, given the degree of influence that BSkyB has acquired over ITV, and ITN as its news provider, the regulatory requirements for impartiality and a strong culture of editorial independence in TV news.
The BBC is trumpeting its recent surge in 24-hour news, according to the Guardian:
The BBC head of television news, Peter Horrocks, said: “We are maintaining our traditional values of accuracy and authority, with an emphasis on original journalism and vivid story-telling.“Audiences might have reason to question our competitors’ commitment to news. Sky News is no longer valuable on cable and BSkyB want to take it off Freeview…for many audiences ‘the news’ now simply means BBC News.”
Horrocks is entitled to private satisfaction, but he has not just a managerial but a political job, and in politics success like failure, always comes at a cost.
If there were a market impact assessment today on introducing a 24-hour news service that would demolish one attempt at competition (ITV News Channel) and undermine the business model of another, News 24 would not exist.
News channels are profitable in the United States — and there are MSNBC, Fox News and CNN to prove it. They are not profitable in the UK, and if James Murdoch should decide to shut Sky News down, or limit its carriage, we are left with just the BBC to provide us with 24-hour news. Perhaps that’s not the end of the world, but it is the end of diversity. And diversity — pace the different ‘flavours’ of BBC News — doesn’t just mean within the death hug of the Corporation.
When national news breaks we want more than one source directing us to the truth. Remember 7/7? Audiences may not want to forget News 24’s response that day…
Yesterday the BBC invited assorted media journos to take a peak at its autumn schedule. According to the Guardian, as BBC One boss Peter Fincham introduced a clip to promote RDF doc series A Year with the Queen he announced, “Annie Leibovitz gets it slightly wrong and the Queen walks out in a huff.”
We now know this was a cynical stunt by a conspiracy of masonic republicans to undermine the monarchy — and it nearly worked.
Clearly Fincham is now finished in television — his credibility in tatters. RDF should never be allowed in the Palace again. The BBC should have the word “royal” removed from its charter.
Actually, I think the Queen will survive this sleight, and so too should the BBC.
But the corporation might want to look at how documentary-makers treat less privileged individuals when advertising their wares.
During the Iraq War, Sky News reporter James Forlong filed a pool piece from a submarine. I was at ITN and watched it come in. (Disclosure: I worked alongside Forlong in the early 1990s. He wasn’t a friend.)
Forlong began his piece: “Beneath the waters of the Persian Gulf, the nuclear powered submarine HMS Splendid and the final moments before a cruise missile is launched.” I didn’t clear it for air. It was, self-evidently, an overwritten facility of the thumbsucking variety.
A BBC documentary team were on the sub, filming Fighting the War. They didn’t challenge the piece at the time, whilst the war was being waged. They saved it up to promote their series.
The docs team revealed that the sub was in port, and the piece was an exercise — which was pretty much how it looked. Forlong’s script certainly could have been read either way. It contained clear file material of a missile launch. If the sub had been submerged, it would have been beneath the waters of the Persian Gulf. Overwritten is a very long way from fake.
Forlong, 44, was the hors d’œuvre for the press screening. He was quite literally served up, there and then for public humiliation, his professional reputation destroyed over an error of judgment.
The documentary series producer was quoted saying: “Viewers need to be able to trust the editorial integrity of a news report. People assume that what they see on the news is for real. This sort of thing undermines the journalistic community of which we are part.”
Forlong resigned from Sky. Despite a decade dodging bullets in places like Somalia and Chechnya, he was quite unhireable. He was married with two children. Unemployed, he hanged himself.
Trust was restored. The series was promoted. No inquiry needed. All was well with the world.