The Hannan speech continues to make the headlines except where the
bias of the media prevents that.
ITV is on the rocks and its shareholders will suffer accordingly. The
BBC claims to be a public service broadcaster and is paid for by
taxation. With something so dramatic as a British prime minister
being publicly called to account one would have hoped that its news
values would have overcome its bias.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx cs
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TELEGRAPH 27.3.09
Questions for BBC and ITV over Daniel Hannan speech coverage
The BBC and ITV are facing questions over their failure to screen an
MEP's blistering public attack on Gordon Brown which has become an
internet sensation.
By John Bingham and Anita Singh
Daniel Hannan, the Conservative MEP for South East England, topped
international viewing figures on the video sharing website YouTube
after he lambasted the Prime Minister as a "devalued" leader who
sounded like a "Brezhnev-era apparatchik".
The speech, his official response to Mr Brown's address to the
Strasbourg parliament on the financial crisis, was initially ignored
in the main British television bulletins in reports about the visit.
•
But a clip posted on internet was picked up by overseas media,
including US networks, and was on course to top one million viewers
on YouTube last night.
The speech has since been featured on programmes such as the Daily
Politics on BBC Two following its success on the internet.
Both the BBC and ITV News defended the decision not to include the
speech in their original coverage of Tuesday's visit saying that they
were concentrating on the Governor of the Bank of England's warning
about the level of Britain's debt.
But Conservative MPs attacked the decision, describing the YouTube
clip by contrast as the "ultimate in public service broadcasting".
A handful of viewers echoed their remarks on the BBC's message boards.
"I think it certainly demonstrates how out of kilter the ivory tower
at the BBC is from what the general public think," said Philip
Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley.
Nigel Evans, a Tory member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select
Committee, added: "I think it is appalling that they were covering
the fact that Gordon Brown was at Strasbourg but they weren't
prepared to report on one of the most openly critical speeches that
has ever been made in a public body against a British Prime Minister.
"It just shows you now that the BBC, and indeed ITV, no longer enjoy
the duopoly over broadcasting that they used to."
He added: "I would not be surprised if when the interest in Dan's
speech subsides that the BBC and ITV will look at these viewing
figures with envy... this is the ultimate in public service
broadcasting."
Mr Hannan said that the popularity of the clip showed that the "rules
of the game have changed" but declined to point the figure at the
broadcasters directly.
Jonathan Munro, acting editor of ITV News, said: "We took an
editorial decision on the day of Daniel Hannan's comments to focus on
the macro political story that would most impact the UK economy, and
therefore our viewers." [But Hannan was demolishing Brown’s speech.
Aren’t their viewers interested to know that he might have been
talking rubbiish? -cs]
He added: "However, that's not to say that Daniel Hannan's speech
doesn't make great theatre.
"This internet phenomenon is indicative of the role that new media
has alongside broadcast and print journalism in creating stories and
generating debate."
A spokesman for the BBC said: "The main story of the day on Tuesday
March 24 concerned the comments by the Governor of the Bank of
England on the desirability of further fiscal stimulation.
"The clip of Gordon Brown at the European Parliament was used as part
of the reports on BBC News outlets in the context of the wider story,
not as a report simply of the PM's speech to the European Parliament."
He added that the coverage of the story on the main 10pm news
programme included comments from the Tory leader David Cameron and
was "entirely balanced"
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Friday, 27 March 2009
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