Martine Croxall now in Studio E giving a round up of the days other headlines.
Probably to placate the insular nutjobs who think the BBC should be pointing their cameras at the sea and at a few puddles all night.
Or a realisation that the other, normally rather important stories of the day do need covering for those who haven't seen another bulletin. It went on for 15 minutes, so it was more interstitial than a dismissal of the main story.
Last edited by bilky asko on 6 December 2013 1:16am
Martine Croxall now in Studio E giving a round up of the days other headlines.
Probably to placate the insular nutjobs who think the BBC should be pointing their cameras at the sea and at a few puddles all night.
That story was a few moments ago back at No 1 on the BBC News website rankings. I can assure you it's not a case of a few puddles. Several towns down the East Coast are now flooded, following similar flooding in north Wales. Tens of thousands are not in their own homes tonight. Suggesting that it is an insignificant incident (and if it wasn't for Mandela's death, the floods would be the non-stop story) is extremely insulting to a lot of people in this country.
This of course doesn't mean that the death of Mandela shouldn't be given coverage, but right here, right now there's a crisis happening and it needs airtime. I wouldn't expect split coverage at this time of night, but in the morning I feel it would be perhaps appropriate for the News Channel to join World for the wall-to-wall Mandela coverage, giving Breakfast time to cover the storm surge and the other news stories of the day.
Dear god there's been some inane comments on here tonight.
"They shouldn't have gone straight to the news conference, they should have announced it first" - anyone with a brain* would have guessed from the fact that South Africa's president had broken into one of TV's most awful programmes that he wasn't here to update us on the weather situation in Great Yarmouth.
"ITV said 'Mandela is dead' - how insensitive" - dear God how I hate such phrases that dance around the truth such as 'passed away'! He's DEAD. He's DIED. He is an ex President.
"The backdrop on the BBC News Special was showing the sun at an incorrect level in the sky with respect to the prevailing conditions in SA" - again, dear God. It's a subset you idiot. It's poetic.
Rant over!
*saying that, anyone with a brain wouldn't be watching that programme - can't even bring myself to speak its name. I'd even go so far to say that some people who think a man dressed as a woman is comedy wouldn't even know who Jacob Zuma is.
"ITV said 'Mandela is dead' - how insensitive" - dear God how I hate such phrases that dance around the truth such as 'passed away'! He's DEAD. He's DIED. He is an ex President.
The difference between "X is dead" and "X has died" is a significant one in our language - just because you're not perceptive of that doesn't mean that many others wouldn't find it insensitive. "X has died" is a standard piece of news style.
I'm not going to comment on the stupid and uninformed dig at Mrs Brown's Boys and its viewers - it's safe to say that I know who Jacob Zuma is off the top of my head.