samkydd

Call Mr Unobservant but I've just realised that news programmes nowadays often have two presenters, a male and female, why? There's not enough news to justify it because they keep repeating the same things over and over again, and when one is talking the other either looks at him/her, or stares at the camera trying to look cool or find their next bit on the autocue.

I seem to remember that Richard Baker, Robert Dougal, Michael Aspel, Reginald Bosanquet, Andrew Gardner and even Angela Rippon were solo acts and it was all over in about ten minutes before Bert Foord would come on with the weather. Now they just witter on forever!

Even the crappy regional news programmes are doubling up and I'm wondering if it is just a ploy to find jobs for the boys (and girls) in a sort of Equity/NUJ job creation scheme.

Personally I was happier when the news was short, to the point and over and done with quickly. So much so that I find myself switching off (except when Kay Burley is on Sky News) and the morning breakfast crap is never switched on because they try and mix serious news with celebrity tittle tattle and it's all a bit 1970s Nationwide.

Am I a really grumpy old git or do other people feel the same way?

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

smudge

It's called MUPPETRY Sam, particularly applied to all those God-awfull BBC presenters who put their fingertips together then expand into an arms-wide-open gesture, but with their elbows pinned to their sides... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/angry.gif[/img]

The other thing I can't stand is this American style trend of going over LIVE to someone who's standing in front of a building where beggar-all is obviously happening.

I'm like you - from the days when going to a LIVE correspondent meant that you were seeing actualities as they happened...

SMUDGE

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devil.gif[/img]

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

Marky B

I have got no real grumps about it. I believe they are trying to bring in a US style of news network,making the news more in your face. Personally,I quite like the ITN news at 630pm now,whereas one before I preferred the BBC early evening news. Apart from liking Nina Hossain [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img] ,who is not only a worthy partner to whoever she is co-presenting,she is also a commendable newscaster,clear in her delivery and not playing up to any showbizzy facet that take over some newsreaders.
My own personal favourite is her regular co-presenter,Mark Austin. He comes over as authoritive,not shy of giving his ten cents worth. I say this,because I remember very clearly on the day of Ian Huntley's verdict of his murder of the two little girls from Soham and the early evening news was covering it. At the end of the bulletin,Mark Austin stood and gave out an angry condemnation of the evil Huntley. Austin's tones and emotions (I swear he was close to tears himself) was no doubt shared by us all. Perhaps he crossed the line a bit,but he could afford to and no one would complain.
Finishing on a more lighter note,my only gripe with the ITN early evening news is they way the newscasters have to stand up all the time. I can understand it when they have to go through computer graphics on the wall etc,but in just announcing a news item,they may do a full turn on heel. I am half expecting Mark and Nina at the end of show to leave the studio like Morecambe and Wise.
I remember the days of Robert Dougal,Richard Baker,Kenneth Kendall etc and they were the newscasters of then,recalled with the respect they deserve. Newscasting has moved on hand in hand with the further technology television can afford,and whilstI have some doubt about the quality of some ofthe presenters,on the whole I think the television news is fine.
Ta Ta
Marky B [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

Steve Crook

Private Eye does a regular column with examples of news reports going LIVE to their reporter where nothing is happening.

Steve

sanndevil

What gets me is when they wheel so-called experts into the studio and ask them questions. The responses trotted out by these 'experts', often educated to phd or professor level, are usually so inane and obvious that my 10 year nephew would provided better replies! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wallbash.gif[/img]

Worse offenders are the 24 hour news channels - they have a great deal of dead time to fill because on an average day there quite simply isn't enough happening in the world. Even considering the recent terrorist attacks events still move relatively slowly in respect to a relentless twenty-four hour broadcast schedule so they pad and fill like crazy. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bash.gif[/img]

Wetherby Pond

To be fair to them, it's usually because the questions are pretty inane and obvious to begin with - I remember a toe-curling example where a woman who knew Nelson Mandela personally and had written a book about him was asked what must be going through his mind on the day of his release. Her answer was refreshingly honest: "I haven't the faintest idea".

But the other problem, as the present Archbishop of Canterbury has discovered the hard way, is that people who have thought deeply about a subject and have approached it from numerous angles are just about the last people who'd be comfortable reducing it to snappy soundbites. So when they try, they generally do it very badly - not least because I suspect their heart isn't often in it.

samkydd

I think the news is out there but they choose not to bother unless it's really earth shattering or something to do with famous people, based on the assumption that most UK citizens are really interested in David Beckham's neck tattoo, or that Robbie Williams has just bought his mum a house. The Roman Polanski libel case last week was not really that newsworthy at all yet they kept going on about it for ages (they didn't mention why he left the US so quickly all those years ago either).

The broadsheets used to have loads of interesting small stories like a coup in Lourenco Marks or somewhere, or UN involvement in Sierra Leone, and even things about the Antarctic Survey. Now they follow the tabloid style at least on the front pages, and I think that the TV news people tend to do the same. Perhaps in the advert breaks they'll also be advertising "The world's most comfortable shoe only £9.99" or "Trousers that never need ironing, 2 pairs for £9.99 up to waist size 58", or the comb with a razor blade inside "Save ££££££s on barber shop bills!"

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

MrDrakesDuck

Personally I don't watch ITV news much anymore, it just seems like tabloid trash to me, like the Mail or Sun on the TV.

Everything is 'shocking', 'terrible', 'outrageous' etc.

A while back they did a story about a 'shockingly' lenient sentence someone was given, I did actually agree, but I don't think it's for them to judge.

The last time I watched was the other week when they did an interview with a would be suicide bomber in Israeli custody.

In a melodramatic voice they said 'murderous martryr' three times while introducing the story.

It sounded ridiculous. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Funnily enough I've got News24 on now and they just had one of there favourites with the reporter standing in front of the revolving Scotland Yard sign.

A particularly silly one is when they go to the royal corrospondent standing next to that roundabout outside Buckingham Palace at gone ten o'clock at night. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif[/img]

They links constantly backfire though with sound problems and roaring traffic. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

"I thought I had to shoot Germans, not chew 'em"

Marky B

Has anyone ever noticed that an outside reporter never wears a hat,even in when it is cold or raining.
Ta Ta
Marky B [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

samkydd

A hat would be no good because they'd have to lay off the OB hairdresser who is usually the wife or sister-in-law of one of the production team! If they wore a coat it would cover up the designer suit and pink tie (on Sky most of the male reporters wear pink ties). In the old days they all seemed to dress like Frank Marker from Public Eye, with the scruffy light coloured mac and the dishevelled look of the hard drinking, chain smoking Fleet Street hack!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Bahhumbug

What about the weather reports. It's a fashion show alright, and what about those hand movements, gets me in fits of laughter just watching, I've forgotten it's raining outside.

smudge

The 'hack' is alive and well....

Check out Mark Mardell, the BBC's Political Reporter, come autumn/winter. We enjoyed his reports through the tail end of last year ; there he was in a reliable, crumpled old beige mac, slightly unkempt hair, and not a HINT of an arm gesture anywhere ! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif[/img]

Respect !

SMUDGE

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devil.gif[/img]

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

CC1

BBC always seemed to refer to the people who presented the news as Newsreaders, whereas ITN called them Newscasters. I once read that the ITN people generally came from a journalistic background whereas as lot of the original BBC people were presenters.

I know that Andrew Gardner, Reggie Bosanquet, Leonard Parkin and Ivor Mills (all ITN) have now died, as have Robert Dougal and Peter Woods, (BBC) but wonder where some of the others are now? Such as: Kenneth Kendal, Gordon Honeycombe, John Edmonds, Richard Whitmore, Robert Southgate, Alastair Burnet, and Robert Kee.

Can anyone remember any more names from the past or know where some of them are now?

Steve Crook

Trevor McDonald - still around & active
Alastair Stewart
Anna Ford
Selina Scott
Julia Somerville
Martyn Lewis

Alastair Burnet was knighted in 1984. Still alive AFAIK

Steve

David Brent

Newsreaders or newscaster, female or male, young or old.....it makes no difference. All the on screen news presenters are good at is basically reading off an idiot board or teleprompter.
I'm sure some of them would not be able to say "Hello" without it being written down for them first.
If you listen carefully to the bulletins you will see that the same wording for each news item is used throughout the day by different news presenters - word for word.
Whatever words come up on the teleprompter the newsreader repeats without thought.
If the teleprompter malfunctions then many of the readers are completely lost.

I have seen cases when news presenters have been reading out the wrong dialogue to the news item being shown on screen.
Most news presenters get their jobs because of how pleasing they are to the eye and in most cases not because of their intelligence factor or journalistic skills.

Same applies to the television 'Weather girl' who I'm sure really doesn't know her temperature gauge from her cloud formations.
Most are just well paid but attractive clones.

Dave.