BBC News Channel Presentation - 21/03/16 onwards

What a surprise, the VD Show today is discussing - depression.

The programme is just so incredibly dull with no news value whatsoever. It's emoting constantly.

I find even catching 5 minutes of the thing is depressing

Last week they did a live smear test in the studio. Clearly there's strong PSB reasons for doing this, although not entirely sure why doing a This Morning type feature on the News Channel is suitable.

Yep, that's more morning discussion shows, not "NEWS".

The BBC NC is fast becoming a Fox News clone at this rate, where "news" isn't even a subject to broadcast about anymore. We've just had a feature on Afternoon Live on "the first Black headteacher". 40 year old news with no relevance as to why it's even being reported on now.

Come on now, really?! Over-egging the pudding to that extent does you no favours.

Actually that was the first black headteacher in London. The first black headteacher in Britain can be traced back to 1967 and the area of Smethwick/Bearwood, in the West Midlands. Midlands Today did a report on it last year - a report which I ended up in the background to. It is on YouTube.

As to why its relevant, well that's 40 years later from a time where if you were anything other than a white person you often had racial abuse thrown at you and to get promoted to a status such as a headteacher - that would really upset the status quo. It's probably the anniversary of the lady's appointment or similar.

But to say the channel to becoming a "Fox News" clone - don't be silly.

Ah, so it's only relevant because it's a London story?

Even now, even with the semi move to Salford, BBC News is very much a London focused business.

It's called opinion. The word is in the dictionary.

An opinion that is quite separate from reality. Reality is in the dictionary too

Fox specialises in heavy Conservative-skewed opinion programming in prime time. The NC doesn't have any opinion-lead programming.

Fox's presentation is brash and shouty. The NC is calm to the point of sleepy.

Fox studios are designed to keep ADHD sufferers entertained, The NC is more muted.

Graphically Fox is in your face. The NC is more constrained.

It's night and day.

But, you're right. You're absolutely entitled to your opinion, and I'm entitled to point out that your assertions that are demonstrably untrue.

I wouldn't call having smear tests live on a "news channel" as constrained broadcasting, personally.

As mentioned on here numerous times about Derbyshire. Her health skewed misery features are perfectly fine for what is effectively a BBC Two targeted show at women and "those who feel BBC News isn't for them", which happens to be produced by the NC .

However it's NC viewers who lose out when rolling news is replaced by those features.

I'm not a fan of the programme. But with a few tweaks, I think it would work better for both the BBC Two audience and the NC audience.

I find it boring and devoid of pace. Graphics are a mess and they've not made the best of the studio space they're in.

Adding additional news bulletins and throwing to the newsdesk in the event of breaking news would help remove the feeling that the programme is there at the expense of 'news'.

This particular feature would be out of place on the NC if it was presented in the context of 'anything This Morning can do we can do better. It wasn't.

The smear test demonstration was presented in the context of an accompanying segment to the story that participation in screening for cervical cancer has dropped to the lowest in more than a decade. Clearly a newsworthy story and the demonstration has clear PSB value as has been already pointed out.