It is cheap news at the end of the day isn't it? Like the blanket coverage of snow in London, when it left the capital there wasn't half as much coverage.
This paid dividends in terms of ratings. For the whole week Sky's audience reach rose by a quarter week-on-week.
For the Monday in particular Sky enjoyed it's best rating day for a while:
6am Sunrise 119,000
9am Live Desk 225,000
10am Sky Today with Dermot 122,000
5pm Live at Five 181,000
6pm Live at Five 122,000
7pm SkyNews.com 110,000
The thing this weekend is, there is no obvious lead. Nothing particularly newsy, but you can always build the Jade story, and it is new at least. I think it's not a suprise they are leading with it, what else do you have?
It's a news channel though - they're supposed to have news, and I'm sure screens wouldn't have been blank for the weekend if Jade's publicity stunt wasn't taking place.
While naturally I wouldn't wish terminal cancer on anyone, I do agree they went totally off the rails with their coverage. All of the problems in the world that don't get coverage, and they run with Jade Goody breaking news "stories" for days on end as their top stories.
I'm sure on one day alone I counted three - yes three - different stories about Jade throughout the course of an afternoon - and all were blasted across their website as the top news story with all of the Breaking news graphics.
BREAKING NEWS : Jade Goody wants Girls Aloud to play at her wedding...
BREAKING NEWS : Jade Goody doesn't feel very well...
Can't remember which day it was, but I watched a Jade "story" appear as breaking news with one headline, and then about an hour later the same story was edited to have a different headline, a new intro line, and the same content for the rest of the story, and then blasted across the site again as breaking news.
As has already been pointed out here and elsewhere, she's not the only one suffering from it - I'm sure there are little children dying of cancer all over the world who would love to see Girls Aloud but don't have a hope in hell's chance - but their plight doesn't get blanket news coverage from Sky.
As one guy commented, he was sick to death of hearing about Jade Goody and her media circus - more so because his own wife (riddled with cancer) had just had her operation cancelled for the third time. Kinda puts things into perspective, I think...
I knew it was inevitable after showing off the new set for a bit they'd get stuck in a routine, but didn't expect it to happen so quickly, especially with Afternoon Live. Anyone know the reasons - I know Kay had complained about the new island desk, but there must be more to it than that.
I gather they were not happy with the AL set-up,but the show coming from the desk is not permanent.
As one guy commented, he was sick to death of hearing about Jade Goody and her media circus - more so because his own wife (riddled with cancer) had just had her operation cancelled for the third time. Kinda puts things into perspective, I think...
"Riddled with cancer" and operations cancelled three times in a row?
I'm sorry - I find that very difficult to believe.
As one guy commented, he was sick to death of hearing about Jade Goody and her media circus - more so because his own wife (riddled with cancer) had just had her operation cancelled for the third time. Kinda puts things into perspective, I think...
"Riddled with cancer" and operations cancelled three times in a row?
I'm sorry - I find that very difficult to believe.
As one guy commented, he was sick to death of hearing about Jade Goody and her media circus - more so because his own wife (riddled with cancer) had just had her operation cancelled for the third time. Kinda puts things into perspective, I think...
"Riddled with cancer" and operations cancelled three times in a row?
I'm sorry - I find that very difficult to believe.
er why?
Because if you're 'riddled with cancer', you are very unlikely to have your operation cancelled once, let alone three times.
As one guy commented, he was sick to death of hearing about Jade Goody and her media circus - more so because his own wife (riddled with cancer) had just had her operation cancelled for the third time. Kinda puts things into perspective, I think...
"Riddled with cancer" and operations cancelled three times in a row?
I'm sorry - I find that very difficult to believe.
er why?
Experience.
The NHS are routinely castigated for waiting lists, but there are charters in place that ensure that life threatening and very serious conditions are dealt with in short order. Cancelled operations are taken seriously and are put ahead of the queue. That much I can attest to.
I know there are also negative experiences out there, but the overwhelming majority of recipients of NHS care get a good service.
Comments by that "guy" - uncredited as they were, are the type of comment you will find all too readily at the foot of online newspaper articles. Curiously eclipsing the actual statistics, large numbers of "guys" always seem to be getting an unbelievably raw deal.
I'm not given to cynicism, but to that "guy" I would say - don't pee on my leg and tell me its raining.
Apparently the fire alarm just went off at Sky News and everyone had to evacuate... did anyone catch the moment when it went off? All I saw was Jason de la Pena apologising for the interruption in broadcasting.
At 21:41 this evening, I think a report rewound on air (I was only half watching but thats what it looked like). The screen went black apart from the ticker and Sky News logo for about 3 seconds, then a full Sky News logo appeared on screen with the Sky breakdown music. Another couple of seconds passed and they played out part two of "My Way Back: Rachel's Story" (a documentary about an ex-drug abuser from a couple of years ago, this wasn't scheduled and part one had not been played out, the ticker and logo were back for this too). Half way through that show at 21:48, Jason de la Pêna appeared on screen and said "A very warm welcome back to Sky News. Apologies for that brief interlude. A fire alarm went off and we were evacuated from the building."
