The Newsroom

Newsflash - Stories that Stopped the World

(November 2013)

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MA
Markymark
The highlight as far as I'm concerned was Nick Owen announcing the start of the Gulf War on Midweek Sport Special which I was thrilled to see as it's mentioned in Fever Pitch! Nick Hornby writes "Nick Owen looked as his monitor, announced a newsflash and expressed the hope we could go to Stamford Bridge shortly".

Where was John Suchet presenting that Gulf War all-nighter from anyway, looked like his bedroom?


It was the time when ITN were moving from Wells St, to Grays Inn Road, so that might have been a factor.
Wells St did have a Portakabin studio on the roof to serve the ill fated 'SuperChannel' satellite venture, could have been that ?
TM
Telly Media
Could have been a 2 part series. They didn't really cover 9/11, although I suppose that story has been told many times. Didn't cover 7/7 either.


Good. Those events , particularly 9/11, were staged (if that's right word) as media spectacles, every-time footage is shown, it just serves to give another repeat showing of the horror. In my opinion footage from those events should be used very very sparingly.



As far as I'm aware, all 3 of the main TV news providers have editorial policies in place covering 9/11, which means footage can normally only be shown in bulletins and on news channels in exceptional circumstances, and only with the express permission of the most senior editor such as the Editor-in-Chief (as opposed to just Foreign News Editors and Programme Editors). It may be different around anniversaries though, for obvious reasons, and I don't think it extends to cover long-form programme formats like documentaries either.

But given the subject matter of last night's programme, I think the producers were justified in including 9/11 as an example of a news story which 'stopped the world'. It would have been remiss of them to ignore it.
MA
Markymark
Could have been a 2 part series. They didn't really cover 9/11, although I suppose that story has been told many times. Didn't cover 7/7 either.


Good. Those events , particularly 9/11, were staged (if that's right word) as media spectacles, every-time footage is shown, it just serves to give another repeat showing of the horror. In my opinion footage from those events should be used very very sparingly.


As far as I'm aware, all 3 of the main TV news providers have editorial policies in place covering 9/11, which means footage can normally only be shown in bulletins and on news channels in exceptional circumstances, and only with the express permission of the most senior editor such as the Editor-in-Chief (as opposed to just Foreign News Editors and Programme Editors). It may be different around anniversaries though, for obvious reasons, and I don't think it extends to cover long-form programme formats like documentaries either.

But given the subject matter of last night's programme, I think the producers were justified in including 9/11 as an example of a news story which 'stopped the world'. It would have been remiss of them to ignore it.


Yes, I've just watched last night's programme, and I agree, it certainly should have been referred to (which it was) but the footage was suitably restrained

Interesting that the Japanese Tsunami wasn't mentioned, that was remarkable for two reasons, the first time that a Tsunami had been captured in progress with such high quality and extensive coverage, and carried live.
Last edited by Markymark on 7 November 2013 11:00am - 3 times in total
TM
Telly Media
Interesting that the Japanese Tsunami wasn't mentioned, that was remarkable for two reasons, the first time that a Tsunami had been captured in progress with such high quality and extensive coverage, and carried live.



Yes, that is interesting. Same goes for 7/7 as Andrew mentioned earlier, and Glasgow Airport come to that.

I guess maybe they thought by limiting the number of stories covered, they could devote a sufficient amount of time to the ones they did feature, rather than racing through too many.

Also, there didn't seem to be much on-air promotion for the programme. I don't recall seeing any trailers. Does anybody know if it got trailed on any of the news bulletins?
RO
rob Founding member
Also, there didn't seem to be much on-air promotion for the programme. I don't recall seeing any trailers. Does anybody know if it got trailed on any of the news bulletins?


It wasn't trailed on News at Ten last night.
CO
Colm
Perhaps being shown half an hour later on STV and UTV would have made it a tab cumbersome to promote on the networked news programmes?

Anyhow, I found the programme a real treat; constructed in an insightful and non-patronising manner, and letting the stories - and those who covered them - be the core. I was astounded to see a contribution from Dan Rather talking about JFK's assassination; a real coup, I thought.
VM
VMPhil
In hindsight Peter Sissons' initial announcement sounds very on the spot, especially after all that talk about preparing for it.

"This is BBC Television News, the Queen Mother has died. Buckingham Palace have issued a statement saying the Queen Mother has died. BBC Television is producing this special report on the Queen Mother's death."
BR
Brekkie
I really liked the fact they also acknowledged the role ITV regions play in covering breaking news stories from Aber-Fan all the way through to Lockerbie, Piper Alpha and beyond.

They could have included the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport in that as well. I'm fairly certain STV were the first on the scene - way before their BBC and Sky rivals.

Brilliant programme which I'd have completely missed if I hadn't checked in here around 11pm last night, Seems +1 channels aren't such a waste of space after all.

Agree with the point about their praise of the regional structure - I wonder how swiftly ITV Border could cover such an event now.
AN
Andrew Founding member
Thinking about it, didn't 7/7 start becoming known during Breakfast, therefore there won't have been a sudden news flash where "the news" gets announced, more likely updates and rolling news.

Regarding the Queen Mother one, Peter Sissons tie was the least of the problems there. The awful BBC1 pres and the badly worded announcement that he read off the autocue was more of an issue.
TM
Telly Media
Agree with the point about their praise of the regional structure - I wonder how swiftly ITV Border could cover such an event now.



Yeah. Lets not even go there.

By the way, just came across this, for anybody interested ...

http://www.retelevise.com/wp-content/uploads/temporary/newsflash.png
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Regarding the Queen Mother one, Peter Sissons tie was the least of the problems there. The awful BBC1 pres and the badly worded announcement that he read off the autocue was more of an issue.


BBC2's pres was even worse - they pulled the scheduled programme just as N6 said they couldn't go on air yet so were stuck with a still of an ident and announcements for 4 minutes

BR
Brekkie
IIRC C4 were the first to actually break the news of her death. I know I was watching BBC2 at the time and those few minutes led to me channel hopping to find out what was going on.

Interesting to how little Trevor McDonald featured in the show (if he featured at all) considering he was ITV's main face of news for so long.

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