In today’s 24-hour news culture, we’re ‘treated’ to the same 30 seconds of footage every 20 minutes. I can imagine that it is quite an expensive business to send a correspondent to the back of beyond to film a piece, so they’re keen to reuse the same piece of film repeatedly rather than leave them on location all day to repeat the same thing over and over.
However, it seems that they’re not so prudent when it comes to vetting the members of the public they use for such pieces.
At present, there are 2 big stories in this country; the current heavy snowfalls which have caused a minor amount of chaos around the UK, and the ongoing strike at some power stations because foreign workers have been drafted in to do jobs that British people could do.
Both are important stories on a national scale, and have been amply covered in the various news outlets over the past 24 hours. The problem is, such was the BBC’s panic to get some of those affected to offer their opinions for these reports, they clean forgot to listen to what was being said and think “Hold on a minute, if we put that out we’re going to look like right tools”
For the snow story, they hovered around London asking commuters of their opinions. As you can imagine, a few of them were less than chuffed at the scale of disruption, with most bemoaning the lack of viable transport in the capital.
Then this clown stepped up:
“It’s an absolute disgrace. It’s like living in a third world country”
Is it, squire? Is the suspension of bus services because of a natural weather phenomenon in any way the same as a country with next to zero literacy, food or transport infrastructure, not to mention often been ruled by unmoveable despots who kill you if you happen to disagree with them? Now, everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but surely the Beeb will look a tad foolish for allowing these sort of small-minded goons the oxygen of airtime on their station?
The we move onto the power strikes, were hordes of woolly hat-wearing brainiacs stand about with their hands in their pockets, occasionally ringing their mates when they’re in the background of a camera shot or to hold up a badly-written sign deploring thhe very existence of people from other countries. Again, a few talking heads were employed to give their well-thought-out theories, then we were treated to this beautiful piece of prose:
“The problem with the Portguese and the Iti’s is you can’t work with them”
Jesus Christ. Surely alarm bells would have been ringing when this barely-concealed racist diatribe was put forth? Bear in mind this wasn’t live, so the reporter had ample chance to think “Bloody hell, we don’t want this sort of hatred on the airwaves; let’s ask someone else’, but it was allowed to stand.
Again, everyone’s entitled to their opinion (however small-minded and ill-considered it is), but surely the media outlets (especially the BBC which is paid for by the public) have a duty to keep this kind of guff off the airwaves? I guess they have to offer a cross-section of opinions on all stories they cover, but surely they can spot the difference between someone’s point of view and their petty prejudices.
What is most thought-provoking is in the light of the Ross/Brand scandal, now more than every the Beeb is keeping an eye on its output, which leads me to believe this has been viewed and passed by someone in a position of management. If that’s the case, then I can only conclude that they either agree with these kind of sentiments or simply want to stir up trouble.
Either way, we’re paying for it. Cheek.
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