I seem to remember the tornado in Birmingham a couple of years ago getting a lot of attention- and there were no serious injuries (just lots of property damage).
In fact I remember thinking at the time that it was too much coverage.
Kensal Rise is about 2 miles from TV Centre and 7 miles from Osterley. Breaking news right on their doorstep. Is it any wonder they took the story and ran with it all afternoon?
So I think the 'News Values' of the South East have been promoted well today.
If a similar sized Tornado hit an Urban area of Birmingham, Manchester or Glasgow would it have been given wall-to-wall coverage?
I think not.
The only reason that they stayed with the story for so long is because of the practicality of it; presenters could be shifted to the scene within a reasonable time of the event occurring. It would be impractical to shift a presenter up to Birmingham, as by the time everything there is set up, the story has broke, and there would inevitably be less interest than if the story was jut developing.
The scale of the destruction was fairly substantial as well, and given the density of the area and rarity of this type of event, I would have imagined such coverage.
I see where you're coming from though, and I guess that I am slightly biased. In no way, however, do I think that Sky are valuing the story more simply due to London being the capital or anything like that though.
Obviously Aberystwyth isn't as urban as North London, but their tornado was consiidered to be an "And finally" item last week, while London's is getting the full top story treatment!
From what I've seen on the news the experts wonder what all the fuss is about - apparantly they happen all the time across the country!
The only reason that they stayed with the story for so long is because of the practicality of it; presenters could be shifted to the scene within a reasonable time of the event occurring. It would be impractical to shift a presenter up to Birmingham, as by the time everything there is set up, the story has broke, and there would inevitably be less interest than if the story was jut developing.
Maybe this is an argument for the BBC Regions to make sure that their regional news presenters are of sufficient calibre that should the need arise for somebody to anchor News24 from the scene of something big that's happening on their patch they were up to the job? Not sure the likes of Peter Levy and Alex Lovell would really cut it in such a situation.
It's not just the fact that today was handy for the news organisations, but London is the most populated part of the UK. More people live in London than in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland put together - why shouldn't the media cover us more?
Incidently the line that amused me was on BBC London where the reporter said:
'Who would have believe that this could happen in Central London'
The answer is me - I don't believe it happened in Central London... because it didn't!
Frankly it bores me hearing all this London-centric nonsense. The broadcasters naturally tend to have a London bias. It is, after all, our capital! In America there tends to be a New York bias. In Germany there tends to be Berlin bias, etc, etc. The Tornado was given big coverage because EVERYONE was talking about it. The news channels went big on it because that's what the punters wanted to see. They wanted to see pictures and get more details on what EVERYONE was talking about. Trust me, if it had happened elsewhere it would still have got big coverage. Granted, the Sky presenters wouldn't have been at the scene but that's more of a logistics matter than anything. Get over it.