As a little personal project, I uploaded a stack of news channel video over the weekend from the period of 2pm-6pm on 7 January 2006, the day of Charles Kennedy’s resignation as Liberal Democrat party leader.
It’s an interesting lesson in how incorrect speculation on the impact of major political events can be. Nearly every prediction made by commentators, MPs, party members in the videos turned out in time to be wrong!
Perhaps the BBC and Sky should rebrand their 24 hour news channels ’24 hours groundless speculation’ channels?
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7 Comments
Thats the problem with 24 hour news channels – they have to fill 24 hours when really there is only about 4 hours worth of news (at most) in any 24 hour period.
This means that news channels have to rely on rumour, comment and speculation to fill the blank space where real news should be.
I think the answer is to get rid of the 24 hour news channels and instead for the news teams to post features, interviews and stories to the interactive feed as they become available. Then people can select what they want, when they want it without the waffle.
I find it rather annoying that the BBC feels it has to waste license payers money on News 24 given it seems to be the antithis of high qaulity news coverage.
What are some examples of what they got wrong?
Hi Glass House,
Some quick examples off the top of my head:
– Sky news predict Kennedy’s resignation is only for a matter of months
– Nick Robinson says that recriminations over Kennedy’s departure will last for years
– News 24 pundit predicts Nick Clegg will be ‘appointed’ Deputy Leader & Shadow Foreign Sec
These are just a few examples that spring to mind – go and watch to find more 🙂
You should post “The Day Today’s” military expert from the “It’s war” item.
Can you summarise the situation in one word?
No
A noise?
Bleuuuurgggh
I hate to quibble, but I think Charles quit on 7 January 2006.
Had he quit on 7 January 2005, we might have been spared that awful campaign launch, and that incident with the Local Income Tax.
Irony… thanks. Fixed.
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[…] Rob Fenwick over at LibDem Voice has posted an entry on how wrong the media can be in terms of speculation and comment surrounding a big story. […]