Asia Earthquake

Steve Scott's about to take over from YTV's Faye Barker on the News Channel.

Sky and N24 have their weekday presenters on today, but ITVNC has had a weekend-style schedule.

Faye has been rather out of her depth with all the interviews.

She also did a painfully bad interview with the Archbishop of Bulawayo earlier on.

anyone got any caps from n24 or sky please

They were particularly slow and bumbling this evening, it has to be said. Sky were excellent, very quick off the mark with the very analysis and explanation at which News 24 is supposed to excel.

The news channels are struggling to decide how much time to give to the Michael Jackson story tonight - the judge has decided to allow evidence of other 'crimes' such as the kid he paid off years ago.

I'd imagine news planners are working out which presenters and correspondents to stick on planes.

Strange to see Richard Bilton in the News 24 studio - isn't he based up north?

http://www.dolben.demon.co.uk/newschannel/skyearthquake1.jpg

I take it that wasn't meant to be shown.

Im watching News 24 and they are saying that the risk of a tsunami is dropping.

So why are they being criticised by members of the forum for coverage of a tsunami that hasnt happened yet. I believe that the coverage has been ample. They are returning to the story every so often with something different whether it be new pictures, or another correspondent to talk to. Rather than jumping the gun by sending a mammoth team of correspondents and reporters to South East Asia the coverage at the moment is satisfactory.

ITV NC has now gone double-headed with Steve Scott and Faye Barker.

I don't think anyone is sending a ''mammoth team'' to anywhere at the moment, and wisely waiting to see how the thing develops.

I criticised it because from the moment the story broke - when nobody knew exactly how serious it was, but it had most of the hallmarks of what happened before - they did very little other than flash a strap on the screen.

If they deemed it important enough to have a strap up constantly, why couldn't they get their act together and get some correspondents and experts on the line? It shouldn't have taken them the best part of 40 minutes to get into rolling news mode, when it took Sky about 40 seconds.

Just heard of the earthquake near Jakarta.

Please god, don't make there be another tsunami. People affected by the Boxing Day Tsunami Disaster are just getting their lives back together and re-building everything. It would be heartbreaking for another one to strike, as enough lives have been lost when it comes to tidal waves.

I suspect there will be special news reports and breaking news from news channels throughout the night.

I can't see Sky, BBC, and ITV sending out special correspondents until this story develops (and let's hope its not because of another tsunami)

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I agree with cat. I switched on News 24 as soon as I saw the thread in here, and they were showing something about the Conservative Party. A switch to Sky News and they were right into it, interviewing somebody. The presenters were being fed all sorts of information, but still managed to look professional and credible and I was most impressed. The coverage gave me all the info I needed, quickly and efficiently, whereas News 24 couldn't do that.

UPDATE
Sophie Raworth said at the end of the BBC News report tonight that she would be "back with a special report at 9" on BBC1. Does this mean we are going to get a BBC News Special programme and that Billy Elliot will be postponed, or will it just be a brief news update?