BBC News Thread

That's very disappointing. I also thought that she would be presenting on a Saturday daytime too.

Sad..

Well that's what the lady said herself when she left Breakfast but nearly six months later she still hasn't been seen on a Saturday and has presented all day on only one Sunday. I agree, though, shame.

To be perfectly honest I preferred it when Moira was on Breakfast doing her Breakfast Briefing 06.00-06.30 and then reading out the other news summaries. Granted she was somewhat wasted there but at least she was on our screens more than ten minutes a week!

I think Moira was distinctly average and am glad she's more or less gone.

You've got to just visit these forums to provide criticisms and stir up trouble haven't you? It's a bit childish/immature, however everyone's entitled to their opinion, I suppose.

I think Moira was a fine, authoritative newsreader but would suit a less formal style of presenting - how about giving her a shot on Breakfast as a main presenter? She can't be THAT unqualified that she can't hold a programme together...

Sorry James, I'm not stirring up trouble, I was just giving my opinion. The comments you usually get here are so over the top wrt Moira that it's silly. Yes I know that sometimes it's just a bit of fun, but there are those here who are so sycophantic it's untrue.

Well to be fair whenever she did interviews with guests on the news summaries they were always a little strange in respect to her speeding with little pause from the last line of introduction, welcoming of the guest and then the first question all which came across as if she was still reading the autocue.
I do think she would be a good mainstream presenter on Breakfast (especially the new format) as she is authorative but still has a sense of humour.

Don't know if Newsnight counts under this category, but a bit of a shambles again in the Newsnight Scotland opt-out.

First of all the opt-out was delayed by about five minutes, and eventually a caption came up in the top right corner stating: "Newsnight Scotland follows soon". Then a couple of minutes later, just as Jeremy Paxman says: "And now back to Lon"... it crashes out, the Newsnight Scotland theme tune comes on, and the pissed-off sounding presenter says: "In fact, we're staying in Manchester for the conference".

The opt-out is a continual shambles. Paxman clearly resents the fact it exists and does all he can to make it run late or be a mess, and the others aren't too clever either. And the Scottish edition is always a mess - box-ticking, under-resourced, and a tack-on to the network edition - just like the 6pm news then.

Still - very funny to see Gordon Brown being decried for being too Scottish, and then a focus group backing John Reid. Morons.

Sounds like Paxman all over to me. He needs to realise he isn't bigger than the show, and that constantly asking people the same irrelevent question over and over again does not a good interviewer make. The sooner someone in charge wakes up and realises, and sacks this god-awful presenter, the better.

Good clips though! Howard & Galloway for instance.

I actually like him as an interviewer, and the Howard "Did you threaten to overrule him" moment was a classic. They just need to sort out the Scottish opt-out as it's always a shambles.

I absolutely 100% agree. This style worked about 10-15 years ago but since then politicians know how to handle it. All that happens is that the viewer gets very little from the interviewee. The only exceptions to this are the splendidly off-the-wall questions that he always seems to save for Blair interviews (like "do you pray together?" and others, which always baffle Blair).

Indeed, audiences understand things better as well. If a question is asked twice and a politician gives a politician's answer, we are clever enough to know what he/she is trying to avoid saying. IMHO, people like Jon Sopel, Chris Roberts (Sky) and Andrew Marr do decent political interviews. The Paxman style has had its day.