ITV News

Cock-up with the London regional headlines on the News Channel - the London opt seemed to go out over the titles and the start of the bulletin, and we saw Nazanine take off her mic and get up and walk away, giving us a good few seconds looking at the backdrop.

ITV1 seemed to be unaffected.

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ITV-1 News At 10.30 appears to be carrying a lead story no-one else is carrying about a plot to fly planes into Canary Wharf being thwarted. I can't find this item on the BBC News pages and I feel sure it has already been mentioned some time ago. Does this not degrade the credibility of ITV News?

Not really - because it's Nick Robinson's exclusive story.

People would moan if ITV News always followed the agenda of the other channels.

On the other hand Tomorrow's Daily Mail is also leading on it, which may not do much for the credibility of the story.

Fair enough James, but is it News?

Yes, as it is a NEW piece of information that has been brought to our attention, and is a story that they believed that they should have told us, and good for them, I say.

Why would a story like this DEGRADE the credibility of ITV News - surely it will have the opposite effect?

It comes a day ahead of the Queen's speech, where an David Blunkett has no less than 8 bills aimed at "security" issues to announce.

The Government agenda is clear. These announcements of 'thwarted attacks' are not news, but a way of pushing the climate of fear ahead of an uncomfortable set of bills.

Even Nick Robinson alluded to this on air, so why it was the lead story begs a few questions to say the least.

He also said that he understood that some in Downing Street were unhappy with the timing of the story.

He also said that he had been given the story a little while ago and it was his decision to run with it tonight.

Well, ITV News has a duty to promote serious news whether it will be a suspected possible terrorist attack prevention or a Royal death. It is nice to see ITV News go to days when they used to do serious news i.e. in the ITN days, and it goes to show ITV News can do other things than fights in 'Big Brother'.

Is it just me or do the news stalwarts e.g. Michael Buerk, Peter Sissons, Andrew Harvey, Moira Stuart, Alastair Stewart, Trevor McDonald etc. are much better than today's newsreaders of Nina Hossain, Natasha Kaplinsky, Phil Gayle etc.
For me, the newsreaders of the 1980s and 1990s are much more effective reading the news than today's newsreaders.

I think that may be missing the point somewhat. This was less 'serious news' and more propoganda.

Yes, precisely Gavin. That's what I meant about "degrading". Dishing out propaganda and not serious news.