Schwing's posts, page 17

Australian & New Zealand's Breakfast TV

First of all, Sunrise (Channel 7 Australia) is a clone of the most recent package launched on NBC Today. If you take a look at the open, the graphic set, colour scheme and even some of the studio elements (white desk with logo on front, 'neon'/bright blue backdrop behind the newsdesk), the only things missing from the Australian version are the NBC Peacock, Matt Lauer et al, and John Williams' 'The Mission'. That said, it isn't all that bad and stays (somewhat) faithful to the original whilst adding some of its own elements.

The interesting one out of the bunch, however, is TV3 Sunrise. The slightly abstract video of the studio being readied, images of dawn breaking, etc. and the final Sunrise logo draw immediate comparisons to the current GMTV look (even down to the fairly short titles and music). When was this look introduced in New Zealand? If it was before GMTV, then it should encourage those on here that have been critical of GMTV's look. I have to say that TV3 Sunrise is far superior in its overall feel and look.

General Election Thread

It varies. There isn't any statute that stipulates a set period of time for the campaign. In fact, if Parliament had been dissolved last Tuesday (2nd February) then a General Election could have been held by the end of the month. I think that there is a minimum requirement of 16 days in which to have all the official paperwork processed.

BBC National News: Presentation

Outstanding moment of comedy/farce on the Six. The running order had obviously been thrown out of the window with breaking news on the death of JD Salinger and Fiona Bruce interviewed David Sillito in the studio. Expecting the weather to be next, Fiona handed over to Louise Lear but she wasn't ready. Cue silence, followed swiftly by "I could tell you the weather myself, but I don't know what's in it". Louise Lear appeared eventually, still trying to finish getting ready and buttoning her jacket up.

HAITI QUAKE - COMBINED DISCUSSION

I think it's a little unfair to say that the coverage on Fox has been diabolical. Although CNN was first to break the story, it was Fox that was first with a report from a correspondent. There's been a lot of criticism leveled at Fox in the last few days, with claims that it put an exclusive interview with Sarah Palin above the news from Haiti. To be fair, there was little that could be done (or discovered) given the time at which the earthquake occurred; the diminishing light would have hampered any attempts to get people into the country and the lack of communications made things extremely difficult.

It should be pointed out, however, that although CNN - and in particular Anderson Cooper - has been praised for its coverage, there is a significant caveat to this; critiques by the New York Times , Washington Post and the LA Times all compared Fox's decision to stay with taped programming on the night of the earthquake with CNN's coverage in the days that followed. Why did these critiques not examine CNN's coverage on the evening it occurred? Because it had no resources in the area and Anderson Cooper - against whose coverage everybody's else's has been compared - was en route to the region. Is it me, or isn't it a little unfair (to say the least) to compare the coverage of one network in the immediate aftermath with that of another a day later, by which time it had mobilised its resources and had an anchor on the ground? Additionally, if you would like an example of diabolical coverage, you should try MSNBC - their coverage has been, and continues to be, a shambles.

CBS Evening News recreation/mock

I like this a lot, although I'm left a little unsure as to whether it's a mock or recreation. If it's a mock, it's fantastic (but it would be nice if the CBS Evening News graphic could be straightened - it appears to be on a slant). If it's a recreation, I've a couple of comments:

1 - You're missing the interlinked globe motif before CBS
2 - 'Evening' and 'News' appear on separate lines (and are right aligned)
3 - The 'with' needs to be in lower case
4 - There should be less emphasis upon the Eye logo and more placed on the world and time clock

Sky News

I'm in complete agreement with you Dave. The coverage by Sky last night was farcical. I'm do not doubt that there was a need to cover the story - indeed, when it first broke I followed the reports on Sky News as much as anybody else, especially as BBC News had yet to pick it up. However, the coverage on Sky moved from the sublime to the ridiculous. Obviously the BBC had not been slow to recognise the importance of the story but were more cautious in their approach. At 1.30 when the top stories were being reported on the News Channel, the BBC reported that three men had been arrested, they were drunk and that one of them had made an 'inappropriate' remark that appeared to have started the incident. Sky News, on the other hand, were still treating it as breaking news, did not refer to the arrest of three individuals and did not refer to the fact that they were drunk. Their treatment of the story was undoubtedly - at this late and advanced stage - inappropriate and disproportionate.

I agree with you also onetrickpony; there were and on that basis alone the story warranted coverage. However, what I object to is the manner in which Sky went about it, and, in the hours that followed, how they persisted in speculation when the facts of the story had been disclosed. As Dave states, the speculation ranged wildly and did not add to the coverage.

BBC News: Presenters & Rotas

Now it's official. BBC News has confirmed that the four will join the News Channel in the New Year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8427992.stm

General Election Debates

I would hardly call my critique of your 'Vote LABOUR' position a 'slagging off'. More of a reminder (albeit a sarcastic one) that this is a forum for discussing television presentation, such as straps, DOGs, VT, etc. Your little 'I Love Labour' rallying call isn't appropriate here.



If you do want to discuss the merits of your argument, however, I suggest that you first Google 'Wilson' and 'Inflation' or 'Callaghan' and 'Winter of Discontent'. If you want a lesson in how to bring a country to its knees, then you need look no further than 1975-1979. If you'd like to reconsider your argument and perhaps amend it to 'The Conservatives and Labour are both responsible for bringing towns and cities to their knees' then please feel free to do so. BTW, did you notice how I corrected your spelling? You might want to learn the difference between 'are' and 'our', and 'their' and 'there'.

General Election Debates

I see that the patients have taken over the asylum... Tell me, itv News fan, have you read the title of this website? Which part of 'TV Forum' do you not understand? It's a forum (hence the word 'Forum' in the title) for discussing TV (ditto 'TV'). Now if it was called TV and Politics Forum, I could understand your little diatribe, but, no, I can't quite bring myself to do it. Perhaps because you're wrong.

Now if you want to have a real debate on whether the Conservatives did (or did not) bring the country to its knees during the 80s and 90s, if you want to discuss the (supposed) merits of Labour, then I suggest you take your opinions and views elsewhere. Perhaps to fora which discusses politics. Call me old fashioned, but I think that that is best. Don't you?

ITV News

FYI, rajanchavda, Jugalug was being sarcastic. And whilst I think about it, Mark and Mary are not the anchor and deputy anchors for ITV. IIRC, Julie Etchingham was poached from Sky News to partner and succeed Trevor McDonald. I'm sure that when ITV announced the shakeup of its presentation roster, it was made clear Julie and Alastair would rank above Mark as anchors, not least of all because they will be the ones anchoring the general election broadcast next year.

Sky News

Actually, Henry, we do refer to them as swing seats in this country. The term is used interchangeably with 'marginal' and has been since psephology became a recognised field of social scientific study in 1952. It is, after all, the reason that we refer to the swingometer on election night.

bbc.co.uk

Anybody having problems accessing the BBC websites? My browser is telling me that it is unable to find the server 'bbc.co.uk' Gremlin in the system again?