Catchup

Reminiscing The Big Breakfast

Also along the same lines, does it still have the same postal address as it did back then. I still remember it for some strange reason, don't ask why.

Shepherd Smith hired at CNBC after leaving Fox "News"

Watched the past two nights, I enjoyed the show, presentation, content, and set, but I wish it didn’t sound so echoey and shouty. Surely some acoustic treatment in the ceiling would help dampen some of the sound?

CNN International

Maybe I’m in the minority but I like the sidebar effect. There was a time when they’d just stack boxes over the picture, now that was messy!

No Time to Die - Delayed James Bond film.

It won’t play in cinemas if it’s had a streaming release. That’s a dangerous precedent to set that would destroy the cinema industry and, in turn, the film industry. I would be very surprised if Bond goes to streaming.

Reminiscing The Big Breakfast

Wonder if the house still has the same phone number.

International News Presentation: Past and Present

POP TV, Slovenia, 2003:

New BBC social media guidelines

You'd think so, but no. And that Naga fiasco came literally weeks after the BBC told news staff in Northern Ireland that they were not allowed to attend Belfast Pride. An issue pretty much ignored by the UK wide media at the time, except for one article in the Guardian, but the same policy/excuse that was applied then is what is being applied now.

CNN International

The whole thing just looks a mess on screen - far too much going on and things moving around when you consider the purple coronavirus sidebar has a moving image and there's the scrolling ticker at the bottom too.

A shame too as one of the advantages of the current look when it first came in was that it was minimalistic and seemed to be the opposite of the trend with US news channels of filling the screen with all manner of graphics.

Even ignoring the election countdown graphic, the sidebar in that second image and the headline strap are saying the same thing.

BBC News nostalgia, including BBC World

What does the North America feed show during the time it opts out from Asia business?

New BBC social media guidelines

Indeed, I would have thought the "we're not neutral on racism" stance established after the Naga Munchetty complaint debacle would have applied equally to sexuality issues in this day and age.

New BBC social media guidelines

Isn't that what people usually point to as proof that the BBC is supposedly "doing something right"?

New BBC social media guidelines

Some points in here probably are reasonable - e.g. “If you have a story to break, the BBC platforms are your priority, even if it takes slightly longer”.

However the policy doesn't seem fit for purpose and is a bit vague in areas where it shouldn't be.
Who's deciding whether a social media account is "an account which reflect only one point of view on matters of public policy" is a grey area (and hard to police - there's always new accounts popping up and who is responsible for judging this, how often would they be judging this). Similarly too what's deemed a “controversial topic" is a grey area and not clear and is the typical BBC issue of trying to create a 'give both sides' narrative in the name of "balance" when not both sides are equally reasonable and deserving of equal coverage.

The discussion point that seems to be doing the rounds this evening is sexuality. The optics of punishing employees in 2020 if they were to support people who are LGBT (e.g. maybe a close friend or colleague who's just come out or who may be LGBT but been abused in public as an example) is awful and would make it appear as if people being LGBT is "up for debate". Even if that's not the intention as Munro's tweet seems to suggest the wooly wording of the policy doesn't make it explicitly clear if something like sexuality is a "controversial topic".

Basically the Beeb had two options: use a 'common sense' type policy when it comes to have employees use social media (so leave it to employees to judge and reprimand them if they're deemed to have crossed the line) or to do an explicit policy explaining what is and isn't acceptable with a list of clear, explicit criteria so even if controversial (I don't think firms should be overly policing what employees do in their own time as long as it doesn't bring the firm into disrepute) everyone would know where they stand.

What the BBC have ended up doing is neither and something which feels 'designed by committee', has created as many questions as it's resolved and probably pleased nobody. The BBC really are their own worst enemy at times.