Middle East Crisis

Started this thread as it's a major news event which will no doubt go on for weeks if not months, and the comments I wish to make apply to both News 24 and Sky...

News 24 have just blown Sky out of the water with coverage which is likely to see it retaining it's NCOTY title again next year. (It truly is one-off events like this that decides these, Sky won theirs one year because of the excellent JT coverage of the Soham murder hunt)

While Sky had JT stuck in Israeli territory (the BBC have clearly stuck to the other side because of previous pro-Israeli complaints), News 24 had Ben Brown anchoring live as HMS Gloucester came alongside to begin the evacuation of British subjects from Lebanon. Tim Marshall was clearly visible in the background but was, for some reason, unable to get on the air and so News 24 had an 'EXCLUSIVE' caption up for the better part of an hour.

Excellent interviews with the British Ambassador, the Commander of HMS Gloucester and UK Nationals as they arrived to board the ship - including, luckily, a young lad who they'd earlier in the week had a live link up between him and his parents who were setting in N8.

Ben Brown anchored the whole thing excellently, and even Peter Sissons back in London for the back 1/4 hour was pretty impressive instilling a sense of gravity.

While the 6 O'Clock News was back live with Brown in Beirut, Sky had JT speaking to Marshall via telephone with some recorded pictures.

Sorry... erm, have you actually SEEN any of the coverage?

Whilst, granted, Ben Brown interviewing every 12 year old he could get his hands on at Beirut Port was entertaining stuff, News 24 have been desperately poor throughout the rest of this.

Presumably you missed Jeremy Thompson live on air during a missile strike? Or the same thing happening to Martin Stanford this afternoon?

You didn't see Sky covering the series of explosions in Haifa and another Israeli town this afternoon - with live pictures of both strikes and correspondents in both cities - whilst News 24 were doing sport?

You missed Sky's coverage of one missile strike when the BBC, at the same time, were running a story about a man growing olive trees in Devon?

Golly, Moz, you really are astoundingly stupid at times.

And just to clarify this, whilst they have had Jeremy Thompson and Martin Stanford in Haifa, Tim Marshall did anchor a fair bit of Saturday and Sunday's coverage from Beirut. I have to say, brief clips of Lyse Doucet aside, I have not really seen any anchoring from Israel by the BBC.

Instead, we have been treated to endless Ben Brown in Beirut. A man who owes his career to nearly getting killed hiding in some bushes once, and has a sense of charisma that makes you wish he had been. Good stuff.

WOW! Is a live missile strike different from a pre-recorded one? Do Sky have the exclusive rights to live coverage and BBC the edited highlights?

People were writing satire about this 10 years ago, and now here it is!

Live on air during a missile strike? That's big of them considering there are literally hundreds of strikes all over the place!!! However the big story was one ship with British people getting on it, I think it's slightly more important covering the evacuation. The BBC was there, Sky weren't.

The reason Sky didn't cover the evacuation was becuase they COULDN'T, not because they chose not to. That's very poor on their part.

Sorry to reply to this in three sections, but, wow, I missed this first time.

re: news channel of the year. Were you on the judging panel? You honestly think that the 30 minutes of Ben Brown in Beiruit would win them that title again? You're insane.

re: the rest. By ''Israeli-territory'' I assume you mean ''Israel''. Haifa isn't in the West Bank, they do have a legitimate claim on it. And what are you going on about ''the BBC have stuck to the other side''? It's probably because they don't want to inflict Lyse - she's Canadian.... I know, weird! - Doucet on the viewing public, or because they haven't got enough of a presence in northern Israel to mount that sort of an operation there. Are you seriously suggesting that the BBC have taken a purposefully pro-Lebanese slant because they are worried about people thinking that their coverage of missiles raining down on Israel might be perceived as biased?

How is it Dan Rather used to end his news bulletins... ''Courage''? Could do with a bit of that at TVC, by the sounds of it.

Your earlier post:


Your later post:


You ARE an idiot.

Also, presumably you missed Sky covering the French nationals leaving (yes, live) yesterday afternoon. The BBC really weren't there then.

Just as the BBC couldn't cover missile strikes live.

... have had to rely on Ben Brown almost entirely for the past two days, whereas Sky have been anchoring from Jerusalem, St Petersburg, Beirut, and Haifa since the weekend.

... have been missing events under their nose because they've been faffing about with sports bulletins (or olive tree reports)

... have been anchoring most of their coverage from London today, whereas Sky have been doing it from the ground.

Want some more?

To be honest it is pretty obvious that News24 has been pretty shoddy up until now. News 24 should be better with all the resources they have. And on another note Ben Brown is extremely dull!

And by the way... GMTV broke the news of the first evacuation of Britons on Monday morning! They beat both the BBC and Sky by half an hour! They had a breaking news strap up for a lot of GMTV Today.

Wow, cat - 5 posts in the same thread in 23 mins. Is that a TVF record?

It is perhaps somewhat unfair of me to comment on the coverage of this, as I've seen far more the BBC's output than Sky's (as that tends to be 'what's on' where I am - a big change from years gone by), but from what I've seen, the Beeb have been concentrating more on the diplomatic angle and explaining the story, whereas Sky have gone with the more gripping live coverage of bombings. It's much harder to turn off coverage of live bombings than a debate/discussion of the region's politics, but that doesn't make the former 'better'.

Having said all that, News 24's coverage does seem to have been rather pedestrian, and the whole flow of the channel isn't being helped by Ben Brown's relative inexperience of the channel combined with the lack of strong anchors back in London who all seem to be on leave at the moment.

Cat, I'm not going to bother answering all your posts because most of them are just mis-quoting what I said or repeating what you've said earlier.

I must admit that I was away all weekend and so haven't seen any coverage until this week, but I just thought that the 5-6 hour tonight was exceptionally good journalism, and I couldn't believe it that Sky weren't there (having a foreign editor not being able to get on air sulking in the background of BBC lives doesn't count).

Both channels are doing quite well. Sky News is snazzy and fast, and N24 is more contemplative and better at explaining the issues. It doesn't surprise me that some people on here seem totally unable to grasp the different concepts. Ben Brown annoys me immensely, but a channel's coverage shouldn't be judged on where top names have been flown out to, and how fast.