Thursday, 14 May 2015

Three gripes and a cheer!

TV news

There are a couple of things that irritate me about Network News broadcasts. While we have our evening meal, we regularly watch Prime News at 5 30, then switch to One News at 6, and then switch again at 7 to Campbell Live.

I am regularly disappointed that the news is identical in subject and treatment on Prime and TV One. I thought we had a bit of competition to keep the networks honest, but there seems rarely to be any difference in what is regarded as important, or in the way news items are approached. New angles are infrequent, unorthodox opinions almost non-existent, and the sensational seems to win all the time.

Another irritation concerns the "Updates" to news or weather during later programmes. At 7 30 or 8 30 the networks give us what they call "a News Update", which turns out to be a repetition of the main  headlines from the last news bulletin. The word "update" surely means that we will hear an up-to-the minute" development of a previous story, but we never do.
 
And on Saturday and Sunday morning, it's as if there is no news at all. No news bulletins to keep us up to date. Absolutely zilch. There are plenty of us who get up at the normal time in the weekend; don't we pay our tax and spend our money on advertisers' products like everyone else?
 
However, I must give at least one cheer for our No 1 favourite programme: Q+A. This is extremely well presented, always covers important issues, and makes an effort to look at its subject-matter from a variety of points of view. It is one we try never to miss. Especially, I must say, when Corin Dann is doing the interviewing. Corin does not let his subjects avoid his questions, which are usually right on the button. Long may this programme continue!














No comments:

Post a Comment