US Anchors vs UK Newsreaders

Id say the prime example of this has to be ITV's Lunchtime News. Obsessed with health and human interest stories, phone in's and text surveys that have clearly been chosen to keep the housewife audience that have stuck around after This Morning. The bulletin is totally unwatchable as for the most part, it is devoid of any real serious news. Apparently on Friday after all the Windsor coverage the second most important story for them was about the feud between Elton John and George Micheal - who says they havent dumbed down!

I would suggest that the Six O'Clock News is the biggest culprit for this. The bulletin is sometimes almost entirely unwatchable, obsessed as you say with health and family issues and generally rather poor at covering major international stories. On the flipside, the BBC Ten O'Clock News is a far more intelligent programme, leading more often than not with the main NEWS as opposed to an issue that the programme has assumed its viewers will be interested in. It covers international stories excellently.

In my opinion, the "Americanisation" of the 6pm bulletin with its flashy graphics and issue-led news agenda is a perfect example of why American-style bulletins don't work when compared with typical British-style bulletins like the 10.

Then why do you all watch these bulletins, it seems as if you are bound by loyalty..i stick to Newsnight and a bit of Huw at 5 on N24 when I'm at home and at work we've sky news on.

This article falls down in its suggestion that British news should become more like American news. For all of the readons outlined by msim, that would be disastrous.

I believe, however, that all of its criticisms of British news (and in particular BBC News) are entirely valid. It has gone from dull and serious to dull and trivial. As has been said above, the Six O'Clock News is now entirely unwatchable.

Apppleyard's suggestion that someone like Jeremy Paxman should front the 6 or 10 is not at all bizarre. There should be more Newsnight-like content on the mainstream bulletins, and less cliche-ridden reports in neat little packages. Except in the case of major news, the 1, 6 and 10 are the same day after day. The news may change but the script does not, and the BBC's attempts to hide this - having reporters live at the scene - only show it up more.

Below is a link to the online version of the story. No pics I'm afraid!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2774-2141017_1,00.html

I must say, the previous posters make valid points. I don't think we want to see British news become too American in style. However, you need to read the article deeper and understand more about Bryan's criticisms of UK news, rather than the fact he wants us to go American.

Take a couple of points:

1 - BBC News has gone tabloid but without the excitement. So true. The 6pm news is trying to be the Sun but without the glamour and hype.

2 - He mentions poor presneters. It's very simple. George and Natasha should go. They are poor performers and, whether you like it or not, TV news is a performing art.

3 - Breakfast - anyone who's ever watched Breakfast on BBC1 will agree with the man. It's dire. It's neither here nor there. It has pointless features and a terrible obsession with the weather and sport. Boring, boring, boring.

Also, worth noting that in America news presenters DO NOT appear on normal TV (with the very odd exception of female presenters appearing on chat shows like Oprah to share their personal experiences of life) You will never see Tom Brokaw or Katie Couric dressed like twats on a charity show or dressed like twats and dancing on a celebrity talent show.

Yip Breakfast is dire - couldn't agree more. Stories are dull with no pizazz. Dermot appears too earnest,and Sian just too mumsy to be taken seriously. But to be fair they are trying to anchor a format that is unsure of itself.

Disagree about Katie Couric dressing up - she has dressed up as Donald Trump, and I think a pumpkin for Hallo'een, whilst co-hosting Today! At least Natasha didn't wear her Bannanaramma outfit whilst presenting Breakfast!!

Despite what I wrote about the Six above (which I stand by), I'm not sure I agree with too much else of what's in the article. The 10pm news is an excellent bulletin and throws up some genuinely fascinating and compelling stories from around the world. It showcases the best of the BBC's TV journalistic talent, and showcases it very well.

I also completely disagree with the assertion that Sky shows "more commitment to facts and analysis" than the BBC - if Appleyard's idea of facts and analysis is a phone poll to ask whether Prince William or Prince Charles should succeed the Queen, or the breaking of stories that then have to be "unbroken" after they are found to be inaccurate, then so be it. If not, I think he needs to watch more of both channels. And incidentally, on the example of the Paris riots that he cites, I thought Jon Sopel showed great journalistic talent in reporting the story, talking to protesters in French and working his way through the crowds.

And Paxman anchoring the main bulletins? Be serious. The man has a certain something about him, but his arrogant "beat 'em down regardless of whether they answer or not" attitude to interviewing would soon grow very tiresome.

BBC News has its problems. But you don't have to watch News 24 for very long to see the quality that exists. In my opinion of course!!!

I think CNN's Anderson Cooper has described the situation about news presenting perfectly:

"I think the notion of traditional anchor is fading away, the all-knowing, all-seeing person who speaks from on high. I don't think the audiences really buys that anymore. As a viewer, I know I don't buy it. I think you have to be yourself, and you have to be real and you have to admit what you don't know, and talk about what you do know, and talk about what you don't know as long as you say you don't know it. I tend to relate more to people on television who are just themselves, for good or for bad, than I do to someone who I believe is putting on some sort of persona. The anchorman on The Simpsons is a reasonable facsimile of some anchors who have that problem."

The Today show on NBC is No.1 morning programme in America because the presenting is designed for the morning, i.e. easy to understand. You could present Breakfast from the News 24 set and you'd think that News 24 is being shown.

However it must also be considered that the UK has never had anchor-driven bulletins like the US. Or to be more precise, newscasters here have never let their personality come to the fore to the extent that they do in the US - it is 'well-known faceism' over here rather than personality-driven content.

I wholly agree about BBC Six - indeed I cannot believe this hasn't really been mentioned here before aside from the usual Natasha-bashing. Six is becoming so utterly inane, so patronising, and ultimately so dumbed-down as to be offensive even to the housewives it is clearly aimed at. The amount of family claptrap, health issues and fuzzy animal welfare content is increasing by the bucketload every day. It's simply unbearable, never mind the other distractions of link-ups and the stand-up act.

But above all it is the remarkably patronising are-you-sure-you're-listening-closely-now-children George, and the simpering chit chatty Natasha that are so degrading the brand that is BBC Six. It never fails to astound how utterly condescending Alagiah in particular is - bobbing up and down making learning fun, shouting at the camera, inserting ludicrous inflections in his voice to make all this booooring news stuff less boooooring. And as for the mindless chatter between the pair - don't even get me started....

Really it is so very sad to see the Six brand go down the tubes like this. The sooner both of them are extracted the better. Natasha I think has lost all credibility as a newsreader - she's just too much of a distraction now as a 'celebrity', whilst George, while an excellent journalist and a decent newscaster on his own, simply has to be moved for his own sanity, never mind the viewers.

Although the change in focus at the Six has been going on for some time, it is obvious (to me at least) that the Six and the One are now working to the same news agenda given that they share an editor.

The most glaring example of this is that on the day the ferry sank in the Red Sea with the loss of over 1000 lives (no westerners, so not been reported since, though that fact wasn't known at the time) the Six O'Clock News led with a proposed change to the child vaccination scheme. Not an effected change, but a proposed change.

I think UK news is better than US news, as it appears to be more professional. However, UK news, in terms of presentation, has its own nuances that is different (not with ITV though, they are copying American news).

I wouldn't be surprised to see this article in Private Eye in the near future, as it wouldn't be the first occassion the Times (prop R. Murdoch) produced something like this: