Would Sky News have been recording BBC News 24, or does my video copy back it up?
Your video copy doesn't back much up at all, apart from the fact that you don't watch News 24 for more than 1 second at a time!!! You give about 49& of the time to Sky News, 49% to ITV and 2% to News 24!
And from this rather biased evidence, all I see is Sky saying that their potical editor
expects
Blunkett to resign, and News 24 saying that he hadn't arrived as expected at the select committee. So your video doesn't even cover the time when any of the channels broke that he'd actually resigned!
In fact, for all I know Nick Robinson may have been telling us that he had resigned, but you cut off so quickly he only gets two words in at a time!
God help the accused if you're ever called to give jury service!
Ok, what happened was... (according to my sketchy memory).
Sky, the Beeb, ITV had all flashed up earlier in the hour (no idea what order) that Blunkett hadn't turned up at the Select Ctte. They had a chat about it for a bit with people in Westminster and left it at that, thinking it was just a bit of a delay and nothing to read into. Peter Murphy on the ITV News clip that's been posted shows that well - ''I sat here talking to you half an hour ago, saying David Blunkett had not turned up''.
At about 9.50ish the BBC were talking to Nick Robinson about it and had the breaking news flash up. They were speculating about whether this was anything more serious, and Robinson was saying they weren't sure but it was quite odd.
Sky were also talking about it at the same time, and a minute or so later flashed up that Boulton said he was going to quit today. Boulton then came on and said basically it was over for Blunkett and he was going to quit today.
A little while later, News 24 put up that he had quit - no source was listed because, as someone explained earlier on here, the Beeb don't ''source'' from their own correspondents, so when one of them reports something in it is taken as fact, so no need to put up ''BBC learns that...'' etc. Bearing in mind that at this point he had not officially resigned, and there had been no statements from Downing Street/DWP.
Sky at this point were still stating that Blunkett was going to resign, not that he had resigned. About ten minutes later, PA flashed up a report saying that a couple of MPs had heard that he had resigned, and Sky put up the PA report saying PA says Blunkett has gone.
It was quite a while later (an hour I think) that it was confirmed by Downing Street that Blunkett had gone.
Its nothing to do with biased - i was seeing wether any of the other channels had, while listening to it myself. If you see the NEws 24 clips, at no point do u hear, or have on screen that Blunkett was to resign, it shows quite clearly that Sky broke the news saying he was on his way out and is to resign, check these pics out which i took, when the OFFICAL word came in, it seems all three had at same time.
What the original story on the Media Guardian claimed is that Nick Robinson said that Blunkett was to resign, when infact Adam Boulton was first to say, and Sky posted it on screen.
At 10.03am, BBC News 24 put on screen that he had deffo resgined, without offical confirmation.
What the original story on the Media Guardian claimed is that Nick Robinson said that Blunkett was to resign, when infact Adam Boulton was first to say, and Sky posted it on screen.
At 10.03am, BBC News 24 put on screen that he had deffo resgined, without offical confirmation.
- News 24 were first to say that Blunkett had failed to arrive at Select Committee
- Sky were first to say that Blunkett was going to resign
- News 24 were first to say he had resigned
But for Sky News to get a hint that he was to resign make Sky News better then News24
I beg to differ! News 24 were first to say he hadn't arrived at the committee meeting - that was the first hint that something was awry. Sky News viewers may have needed Boulton to hold their hand and tell them that this news meant it was likely he wouldn't make the day out, anyone with a brain would have known this.
From your pictures above, Sky News were an hour later than News 24 saying he'd actually gone - which makes News 24 better!
"Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe."