{"id":26,"date":"2006-11-01T11:41:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-01T17:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=26"},"modified":"2006-11-01T11:41:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-01T17:41:00","slug":"local-news-daring-to-be-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2006\/11\/local-news-daring-to-be-different\/","title":{"rendered":"Local news – "daring to be different""},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>At the end of Barton Fink<\/a>, John Turturro’s scriptwriter tells the studio boss: <\/p>\n

“I tried to show you something beautiful. Something about all of us.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

So too did the people who bring you Meridian Tonight<\/i>. This is their story. <\/p>\n

But first a reminder of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code. It says:<\/p>\n

10.3 Products and services must not be promoted in programmes.<\/b><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, back in the newsroom, Meridian’s transport correspondent has brought the team an interesting story<\/span>: Virgin Atlantic, a local<\/span> company, are about to launch a new service to Dubai. By aeroplane. <\/p>\n

At Meridian they may think local, but they act global.<\/p>\n

Time for a Virgin 72-hour press trip<\/i> to the desert, and a competition for viewers to win free Virgin flights<\/i> to … Dubai. Well, you can’t legislate for a coincidence like that. <\/p>\n

Thankfully Meridian managed to retain complete editorial independence<\/u><\/b> over the story … well stories. You can’t push off for 72-hours and not bring two stories back, and it gives viewers twice the opportunity to win a fantastic holiday to Dubai. But viewers are an ungrateful lot and one of them complained. <\/p>\n

True, there was a mention of the launch of the new flights <\/span>and an interview with Sir Richard Branson<\/span> in the first report, and perhaps – on reflection – they had probably devoted too much airtime<\/span> to the Dubai features. But this was the product of an enthusiastic reporter<\/span> and a desire on the part of the producers to introduce something a little different <\/span>into the programmes.<\/p>\n

Is it a crime to dare to be different? Must enthusiasm be crushed under the jackboot of regulation? <\/p>\n

Meridian Tonight<\/i> 18\/19 April 2006<\/p>\n

\u201cDubai is just a seven hour flight away with a record 100 flights a week from Gatwick and Heathrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBritish airlines are starting new routes all the time. The latest is Virgin Atlantic with its usual high profile launch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell they say Dubai has everything and by the looks of it, it certainly does\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the shopping malls you\u2019re never far away from a familiar brand. This one is home to 300 shops and there are plenty more. In the old part of town, the souks and the famous gold markets offer good bargains.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all just a seven hour flight away and with low crime rates, it\u2019s one of the safest places to visit\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c Dubai offers all year sun with only a few hours rain a month. The flights take just seven hours and there are 84 a week from Heathrow and Gatwick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026If it\u2019s the weather, security and a rest you\u2019re after, it\u2019s worth a visit.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/b>
[Ofcom<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of Barton Fink, John Turturro’s scriptwriter tells the studio boss: “I tried to show you something beautiful. Something about all of us.” So too did the people who bring you Meridian Tonight. This is their story. But first a reminder of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code. It says: 10.3 Products and services must not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[70],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-virgin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}