BBC News Mandela Coverage

Considering the fact that you have completely dismissed the global impact that Mandela had over many years, then as far as you would be concerned, no explanation can be given.

But, put simply, Mandela changed the world. That's why it's right to have the coverage, and the documentary.

But you won't agree, because that does not fit your Daily Mail view of the world. So don't even bother replying to this.

The impression I've got from people today, both in person and on other forums, especially those who live where I grew up - Norfolk, is that the BBC seriously screwed up last night.

There's lots of respect that Mandela is a massive story, which will require lots of airtime (although there's complaints about that too), but the almost complete abandonment of any coverage of the worst storm to hit the east in 50 years has not gone down well, especially after the blanket coverage the storm heading towards London got last month.

Apart from endless talking heads, obituaries and documentaries, there's not much that can really be shown on a rolling news channel about someone, who was expected to have passed away months ago, has finally died. On the other hand, only a couple of hundred miles from the BBC's "largest newsroom in the world", people's homes are being washed out to sea, the biggest storm surge in 50 years, and effectively no coverage whatsoever of a live dynamic situation.

There's no reason why the BBC couldn't have kept the normal ad-breaks on World last night, and used those times to update the UK on the weather situation. Personally I get the feeling the BBC had planned to go into full rolling mode when his death was announced and got caught out by there being another major story on the go at the time so decided to go with the plan rather than actually work out how to balance their coverage properly.

Daily mail View of the world...okay mate... I'm gay, mixed race and working class lad with Romany heritage ... The daily mail likes non of them, so yea you're right I really do have a daily mail view of the world!! No I have MY OWN view of the world. I don't have a problem with Mandela I have a problem with the amount if coverage he is getting. You understand that now?

No, the BBC as a whole did not screw up.

I think those who work in the local radio newsrooms up and down the east coast who were doing great work last night reporting on the flooding on BBC local radio stations that had broken away from the Mark Forrest show and regional late shows, would take great exception to that assertion and frankly, I would agree with them.

Your view on the BBC is shared by the Daily Mail, so all your denials are frankly useless.

The BBC1 national news team took a decision. BBC local radio newsteams took other decisions based upon their local needs. To denigrate the whole of the BBC, based upon one newsteam's decision, is frankly silly.

The impression I got from people I know was that those complaining about the Mandela coverage were disrespectful. The only serious and logical complaints I heard were about Yorkshire Coast Radio focussing their coverage of flooding too heavily on Scarborough over Whitby.

The only people I saw on Twitter complaining about the BBC News coverage were clearly not personally affected, and all seemed to have an anti-BBC agenda.

The vast majority of the people I've spoken to today / read their opinions do not differentiate between the different areas and departments of the BBC.

Some local radio stations may have done a good job, but other local TV stations spent all morning reminiscing about how Mandela once visited the county, while people are trying to clear a foot of water out of their homes, and for those viewers any sense of goodwill they had about the overnight radio coverage goes out the window.

You may believe (strongly it appears) that the BBC got it right last night, but an awful lot of people, including myself, believe quite the opposite.

I share a view with the taliban that war in iraq was wrong but does that make me a Terrorist? ... Exactly.

I think the behaviour of at least 3 members towards jjlk this evening has been rude and downright disrespectful in my opinion. You seem unable to appreciate that while on the one hand you are lambasting jjlk for not accepting that there should be wall-to-wall coverage of Mandela - you are completely indifferent to his point of view.

Whilst I can understand that Mandela's death is significant international news, I agree with jjlk's underlying point that there was too much coverage of Mandela at the expense of everything else. jjlk has never argued that it should have been either/or - just that there should have been some balance. There was nothing stopping BBC News focusing on both Mandela and the floods. If I'm completely honest, I would have preferred some coverage of the Autumn Statement too. I awoke on Friday morning to news that the Chancellor was due to give his statement on the economy and that pensions and retirement age was to be mentioned and I eagerly awaited the details once I had arrived home from work. By the time I settled down to the Ten O'Clock News to find out just how long I will have to work in my career, Mandela had died and that was that - no news on the Autumn Statement at all. And to say that someone should just use the internet as an alternative is not acceptable. I was also interested to hear Nick Robinson's take on the political/economic events on the day but alas it was not to be.

So I agree with jjlk and others insofar as the BBC and other television news outlets should have given balanced coverage to all three of yesterday's big news stories. To give wall-to-wall coverage of the long expected death of natural causes of Nelson Mandela was a poor editorial judgement given the specific circumstances of the day. If it had been any other day, then it wouldn't have been a big deal. I think that's what many of you seem to be missing during this debate. To put it another way, if Mandela had died and then the 9/11 attacks happened shortly afterwards in which thousands of people died - would you still be arguing for wall-to-wall Mandela coverage? I suspect not - because the circumstances would be totally different. You can't make editorial decisions in a vacuum as some of you seem to think.

Oh wait I think I just found some caps of the BBC covering other events last night during the overnight shift.

SO BORED OF THIS THREAD NOW.

Nice mock