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Thursday, 30 August, 2007

  • Newsnight
  • 30 Aug 07, 06:10 PM

Nawaz SharifPakistan
London has been the scene this week for serious power-brokering over the future direction of Pakistan.

Today at the Dorchester Hotel, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif confirmed that he will return to Pakistan to challenge President Musharraf. President Musharraf, who ousted Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister eight years ago in a bloodless coup has threatened to arrest Sharif if he enters Pakistan. Meanwhile Benazir Bhutto has said she's close to securing a deal with President Musharraf in which he will agree to step down from the army and stand as a civilian candidate in the election.

So is Nawaz Sharif really the best hope Pakistan has for a return to democracy and an end to the political unrest which has been shaking the country in the last few months? We have an interview with Mr Sharif.

A & E
We have often heard complaints from hospital staff about how the plethora of targets distort clinical priorities. What we hear more rarely is concrete examples of what this means for patients.

Now a junior doctor has written a book about life working in a busy Accident and Emergency ward. Writing under a pseudonym to protect his anonymity, Dr Nick Edwards argues that although additional resources and targets on waiting times have led to improvements for some, the pressure to achieve those targets can mean medical staff fiddle the figures to ensure patients get the treatment they need. We'll be putting his criticisms to the government's Emergency Health Tzar.

Faking it
A hot topic at the moment is how broadcasters can restore trust in television. Something we've all been discussing here is when does artifice become deception? Now, in an attempt to re-build viewers' trust, Channel Five News has decided to ban "noddies" and "staged questions".

Tonight we'll attempt to show how TV news pieces are put together using these techniques and ask whether this is a bold move towards transparency or an unnecessary over-reaction. Let us know what you think here.

Diana and the Express
It's difficult not to be aware that tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of Princess Diana's death.

Over those ten years one newspaper in particular has assiduously followed every twist and turn in the story of what happened in that tunnel in Paris - the Daily Express. Why is this? Is it just a cheap lead for the Express or has the paper been giving its readers what they want?

Comments  Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 07:39 PM on 30 Aug 2007,
  • brossen99 wrote:

Today is typical of the way the ´óÏó´«Ã½ attempts to hide the true facts throughout its news coverage. Earlier on, two important stories came out briefly demonstrating how inefficient Wind Farms really are and the prospect of power cuts if the UK ever meets Blair's foolish wind farm generation target. They both come from credible sources and in fact one is being broadcast on Radio 4 tonight at 9 PM. However, Newsnight who put so much effort into Ethical Man totally ignores this subject even though energy policy is vital to the long term future of our country. Perhaps Newsnight is afraid of more funding cuts if it fails to tow the cozy eco-fascist line of ´óÏó´«Ã½ output in general.

  • 2.
  • At 11:47 PM on 30 Aug 2007,
  • Andree Rodriguez wrote:

For goodness sake! Diana was Diana, Princess of Wales, not "Princess Diana". It's like calling someone "Mrs Tracey" or Mrs Julie". She owed her title to her husband. If we wanted such sloppy soppy-ness, we would watch ITV !!!

  • 3.
  • At 11:54 PM on 30 Aug 2007,
  • justin wrote:


It seemed quite uninformative to interview SIR George (sir probably aquired under present government)about the book written by Dr Nick Edwards about the state of A & E departments. He not only glossed over the failures of the government but also referred to NHS workers as 'them' and 'they'.

  • 4.
  • At 12:12 AM on 31 Aug 2007,
  • Gearoid O'Connor wrote:

About time the elephant in the journalistic corner was aired. I was beginning to think it was merely my friends and I who despaired at The Expresses ridiculous infatuation with Diana. It was with particular glee that I saw the markets deciding - as Polly toynbee suggested - when we the report showed the Expresses sales plummeting into the ground like a dart over the past 10 years. Perhaps soon the Express Editors and more importantly its owners will wake up and realise they have become the stuff of open sniggering.

  • 5.
  • At 12:31 AM on 31 Aug 2007,
  • vikingar wrote:

Peter Barons statement on ´óÏó´«Ã½ & Climate Change is bang on.

""If the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is thinking about campaigning on climate change, then that is wrong and not our job" [1]

The death knell of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ & its particular brand of ethos, will be brought about by its own embedded agenda driven journalists who should know better about over politicising a popular national institution with 'causes' *

* esp one where so much is still not understood & an legitimate issue is being high jacked by the usual liberal left leaning collectives, out to attain their disingenuous minority agenda via stealth (not via the ballot box) & more recently via the Trojan Horse use of climate change.

These 'right on' journalists, should be mindful there are only so many jobs available on The Mirror, The Independent & The Guardian & a highly limited audience for such. Books are being replaced by blogs, so no real income there either, esp given the their limited subject :)

We expect the Beeb to bring opposing sides together & arbitrate so they can discuss openly differing opinions for the betterment of viewers to be able to judge for themselves.

We do not expect a biased ´óÏó´«Ã½ too load the argument & take sides.

Thankfully on so many crucial topics, Newsnight & some other NCA programs, still bring to us the important stories & debates, in suitably neutral & professional manner, we as tax & fee payers viewers need to see & hear.

Another GMTV & another dumbed down tabloid-esque media organisation ... we do not wish the ´óÏó´«Ã½ to become.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is paid for by the centre to centre right majority of British subjects/citizens. If agenda driven journalists break the Convention between the British licence fee paying viewer & the ´óÏó´«Ã½ (i.e. political minorities highjack the institution & overly ram politicised agenda down the throats of the majority) … we ALL LOOSE.

People talk about us needing to regard the earth as a inheritance we bequeath to latter generations.

Similarly those liberal left agenda driven journalists in the ´óÏó´«Ã½, should not squander its 80+ year history, reputation & inherent value of our Global impacting World Beating British Institution, to make some ineffectual points, to satisfy their ego's, on the basis that they can, at least in the short term.

It’s the British Broadcasting Company … not the Biased Bemoan Collective

vikingar

SOURCES:

[1]

  • 6.
  • At 01:01 AM on 31 Aug 2007,
  • Bob Goodall wrote:

Dear Newsnight

A really good feature with the A&E doctor and an example of one of your viewers actually in a situation suggesting a workable solution ie hypothecated taxes on alcohol to pay for the costs it incurs for services such as A & E.

ie that which causes a cost ie to the NHS pays for the treatment needed. This would encourage manufacturers to try to limit costs by being more proactive or improving their products ie pubs might sell soft drinks at realistic prices, or push low alcohol drinks.

and why not develop hypothecated taxes ie so that pubs and brewers pick up the costs for the policing needed, the treatment for people suffering from alcoholism and so on

Sometimes I have to walk home late at night through the centre of my town, the scenes are quite awful, with people rolling in the streets absolutely paralytic, this is unfortunately probably the scene in towns and cities across our land.

Re the doctors idea, cigarette companies might be made to directly pay for all treatment needed because of their product and as many programmes to wean people off their drug as necessary

I did not gain a favourable impression of the czar you interviewed tonight,

on a lighter note, re noddies etc, maybe its to save money but perhaps noddies and walkbyes could be a little more imaginative, the guest could be seen in all sorts of ways. ie just imagine, some must have some interesting hobbies surely, or there can be stills or the odd hop or two in the walkbye, perhaps run a Newsnight competition for the best walkbye idea, but the most important thing surely is that scrapping noddies and walkbyes doesn’t lead to dreary boring viewing which is surely the biggest risk of all? a boring image is not one that will get the viewer to pay attention to what is being said

at 11.06 I turned Newsnight off, all I can say that the rot must have truly set into our economy if an investment company can gamble -because this is what they are doing, £100 million on this thing, rather than investing the money into the economy to create jobs and increase growth.

How is it after what happened in the economy a week or two ago, that this can remain unchallenged? Perhaps you did tonight but I had after all turned off so I didn’t see you do it, if you did.

best wishes
Bob

I am pleased that you can discuss the A & E service in some hospitals. At least these hospitals have an A & E service.

The Westmorland Gazette reports 'Health chiefs decided to go ahead with major changes to Westmorland General Hospital by removing what they believe to be "unsustainable" emergency coronary care.'

I know a person who was treated for heart failure at Kendal and survived because of Westmorland General Hospital. This person is not a statistic to me he is a real people.

Regards Stuart Aldridge

I learn new things, and make decisions on information provided by the media. My trust on getting either, accurately, honestly and without agenda (skewed professional or personal/ideological) to the point that truth is 'enhanced’ to no longer be the truth, has been sorely tried of late. And not much restored by most efforts in damage control. Not least by the almost inevitable knee-jerk of broadcasters and their defiant, defensive representatives, which goes usually something like; 'It didn't happen. If it did, we didn't do it. If we did it didn't matter. If does matter, it wasn't our fault (it was a mystical 'them' of outside companies, ill-trained and, one presumes, unsupervised trainees, budgets cuts, current precedent, etc) - and if it was who cares as no one is going to be held to account at all, or if so long enough for things not to wash over. Or if it is looking like dragging on we'll have a bit of a review until it does blow out'.

So of all that could be on the agenda, the pressing issues of "noddies" and "staged questions" are not really high on mine. Which makes me wonder why it is so high, in fact to the exclusion of almost all else, from Ch5 to here. I could not be more under whelmed, though I do note that you can nod with a smile or a frown to seriously redirect the viewer’s perception of what has just transpired. And a reverse question, which I hadn't appreciated until now, seems a great way to get a seemingly horse’s mouth answer to whatever horse’s rear question you fancy asking. Artifice is all. So maybe this is, as the CH 5 editor admitted, at least a start. Just... go further. Even if it may mean changing entrenched views and practices.

All I ask is that, in future, we get told what happened, as it happened. And if we have to be subjected to commentary or analysis by vox pops from the first punter strolling by the studio to 'experts' waiting on call in the wine bar next door, there is not a sneaking suspicion that they have been preselected for what they will say, and/or post-edited to ensure that what they do say fits into place.

Meanwhile, back to saving the planet.

Let me nail my colours to the mast. I think the climate is changing, and for the worse. I think personkind and its consumerist activities may be a possible cause, and certainly cannot be helping (more people buying ever more stuff and rushing around more and more on a finite space with finite atmosphere suggest some kind of tipping point when it comes to the results of inevitable competition and pollution - or, to be polite, 'emissions' - such activity causes)

So I think some things need to be understood, and while we're at it a few other things need to be instigated. Quick. Sadly doing nothing while we argue is an option that, while seeming to be balanced, tends to favour the status quo, and of that I am not in favour.

Hence I tend to err on simply showing folk, and hopefully persuading them, that consuming more than we need, or can use, is perhaps not the best thing to do. Or better yet share the amazing number and scope of things that can be done to avoid pollution and save waste that exist already, and which can go a long way to saving the planet along with a bunch of money.

Another celeb fest ain't it.

To paraphrase Mr. Geldof a wee while ago about another mighty waste of [insert a load of nouns here], I don't need my 'consciousness' raised any more than it is already, ta very much. And I certainly don't need the kind of awareness boost that happened as a result of Live Earth.

My enduring memories are mainly of the negative coverage before, during and after, inspired, with some validity, by such as a Spice holding her child and 'doing it for her', and a week later getting a personal jet with each of her power sisters in case they have too much shopping or get into a hissy fit as they tour the world. Or, on the day, Mr. Ross and such mates who could be bothered to come for a bit of profile and cheap weekend entertainment, basically playing the fool and pretty much saying that all this cutting back really wasn't for them... but they do wee-cycle, like that's all it takes.

If you are a high-profile mega-star, with squillions to burn, with few exceptions ( I think there are some), you are going to have trouble resisting that wadge of wonga and not buy stuff and/or going lots of places to show it off. And a vast media industry depends on you doing so to get the shots they need.

It's just lazy, celeb-obsessed programming to get a few execs and D-list interviewers to play all day in the Green-elite VIP room, and fill a long slot on the cheap in the cause of 'awareness’.

Stick with what's going to make a difference please. I was convinced by your piece on deforestation. It may not be sexy, but not cutting down a tree seems to make more sense than planting a sapling to make up for Puff Diddly's hairdresser's dog's helicopter trip. Or, for that matter, the one to show us what a potentially infectious virus-infected barn may look like if you blow enough wind around it. Or the iceberg in the Far North the entire crew has flown up to look at with a totally white background in shot, to impress upon us the damage of unnecessary trips.

And if we are sincere in moving public behaviour in a real sense that has a decent enviROI, what about such issues as reducing domestic energy consumption and preventing unnecessary waste through loss. Get creative and educate and convince with these first... in major way. Not some 2 second ‘turn the thermostat down’ piety to a bunch of waste-junkies sent to a hair-shirt camp for 24 hrs. Real life, and people, don’t live like that, or face the issues in that way. And, I believe, turn off when confronted with such nonsense.

And don't jump on bandwagons. I don't know, so I simply ask. Are carrier bags and plastic bottles and 4x4s the things that are top of the list in dragging us to oblivion? If energy production and consumption is the single greatest home (and hence viewer) influenced protagonist in all this, can we devote serious journalistic energy and investigation and balanced debate to what is being spent and what the actual benefits (or not) are of alternatives? If an offshore wind farm is not making as much sense as it might, I’d like to know, and why (I actually thought Justin's piece on home turbines went a long way to rasing some key issues and questions on this aspect).

I am appalled that thanks to almost total superficiality devoted to such topics by our major media, I am in the position of being swayed by other sources who are questioning what government is doing (with the support of media capable of little more than rehashing press releases) to help my kids' futures, and simply seem more concerned with meeting a target, boosting a political career or a quango exec's bonus cheque.

I simply can't understand why the facts of these huge issues cannot be found, or made clearer, to help us figure out for ourselves what's best for our futures.

Or we not to be trusted with such decisions?

Divide and rule, guys. Divide and rule.

  • 9.
  • At 09:53 AM on 31 Aug 2007,
  • steve wrote:

Sir, Why are we still waiting for an inquest for an even that happened in Paris ten years ago. A year after Diana's death I asked ten women in my local supermarket queue 'was it an accident, or was she murdered'? All ten replied that she was murdered, now this was just a random question with no scientific basis, just an excercise in public opinion and yet, however irrational those answers may seem, a broad mass of the public seem to think that Diana was 'done away with' A year before her death Diana wrote`that 'she would be killed in a car crash that would be made to look like an accident' That letter was never introduced as evidence in the French inquiry. Why not? The more I don't want to....I think I'm with the women on this one. Sincerely, Steve.

  • 10.
  • At 11:50 AM on 31 Aug 2007,
  • David wrote:

I mad a comment under the nodding; here is mine over other items:-
Pakistan
I have worked several times in the country and have met and discussed many items with the local populace, among the lower to lower middle, an idea persists that only a dictatorship can run the country. in the middle and upper class a democracy. My view was that means a democracy will win!!
Then they pointed out that all big employers and land owners pay the people to vote a certain way.
This reminded me of the "Rotten Boroughs' of the UK prior to the 1832 reform act, Pakistan is in the same dilemma. Big businesses produce for example millions of cotton item for a big American order, the order is then canceled or embargoed and the company will lose all of its employees and closes. This has been happening time and time again not just in Pakistan but in other countries (Mexico, making a pipeline for gas to the USA borrowing money, installing and then the contract is canceled) some people get rich, some very poor and above all the country is duped.

Iraq
I have also worked there and basically you can see the same premise arising, the US has for years said it wants to guarantee its fuel supply (Mexico?) and Iraq was stated as a possible invasion years before the first war there. Bush saw no future in solving the problems at home and did an Argentina (where I have also worked) attack overseas and have less problems at home, but George Washington was correct in saying, although he had the best ambassador of his time, don't get involved in foreign politics.
The Americans made all the mistakes you could make [A Harvard man to decide policy and remove the Old army and police (You only need money to graduate Harvard) not stopping the looting and not building an Iraqi sense of identity, instead of letting the mullahs control the politics].
The military are mostly cowboys are are badly paid [cheap cannon fodder} and have no flexibility in their approach to the country or its people. and like to state statistics and keep to timetables (is West Point this bad?).
We have all been shown that lies lies and statistics is a truth and tis brings me to the A&E which seems to use this non-arithmetic mathematics as a solution when in fact, is the problem!!
Nothing can be pre-ordained but they can tell how many this and how many that will happen! Medicine must be removed from a business climate! allow almoners to control! take away the number crunchers and managers and try zoning in smaller units as smaller is better!!

This also goes for the Heathrow and other airports that are trying to cement over Britain. Don't allowing airports to expand so much! Ration flights! Soon we will have to ration fuel!!

The Electric debate seems to be one sided everybody has accepted "global warming", however the cost to make massive wind farms and low velocity blades is uneconomic, the quality of such large blades is questionable, maintainance extremely expensive where possible! Therefore unreliable!!
Smaller fans more of would be better and more flexible!!

From this plus other views, I am in doubt about many things especially the existence of democracy, also a question that has nagged me since the death of Diana, was why MI6 was on the scene before the doctor (as reported in a foreign paper), when Fayed was in charge of the security!!

  • 11.
  • At 12:16 PM on 31 Aug 2007,
  • JS wrote:

It isn't just Diana that The Express is obsessed with - every time I see a copy (in the news-stands... you never actually see anyone reading the paper!) the headline is about Madelaine McCann. Day after day they manufacture 'developments' or obsess on tiny nuances where other papers have subdued their coverage.

The Express should be ashamed of the way a once-great newspaper now pursues such a narrow, mawkish agenda.

The newspaper was never first choice for me but it used to be a satisfactory third choice. These days I'd rather go without a newspaper than buy this rag.

  • 12.
  • At 12:57 PM on 31 Aug 2007,
  • csharp wrote:

I don't think the intelligent and imaginative Newsnight team need any advice from me on public service news imagineering but in case they do...

First, assume the target audience is the 100,000 decision makers in the uk. These people are used to presentations of varying types so a study of those methods of presentation would provide a format the target people are already habituated with.

What presentations have you been to that were enjoyable and which not. What were their characteristics? No need to be boring after all if its fun for you its probably fun for us. Making GDP fun is just about attitude?

Look at the shows on PBS Frontline [watch again online] no nodding or ankle shots there. A case is made and the interviewees just speak at the relevant point.

Another interesting technique little used because it requires more bravery is rather than an interviewee filtered through an interviewer allow the person to talk straight to the audience with the case they wish to make. The mistake is to give them only 1 minute. In the same way as a song on the radio is usually 3 minutes to hear someones 'song' you need to give them 3 minutes or more. Suppose each song on the radio was only given one minute on the radio. That would be pretty rubbish radio?

If you can capture 'the music' of a subject then that will mean you have caught its geometry.


p.s nice shot of the cameraman in the mirror. haven't seen that since benny hill.

  • 13.
  • At 03:14 PM on 31 Aug 2007,
  • the cookie ducker wrote:

Channel 5 claiming the moral high groud with removing 'dishonest' nods and walks from their news interviews.
C5 appears to have gone for the opportunist stunt whislt the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and others are on a mission to clean up their act in the honesty and integrity dept. I do hope, whoever is in charge of writing cheques for good ideas at channel 5, to block the payment for the clown who thought this one up, not since hoover vacs offered free flights to America have i heard such a silly proposal or idea.
Channel 5, the channel who once brought us bikini clad weather forecasts and dwarfs trampolining news reports, don't make me laugh..ha ha..

  • 14.
  • At 03:46 PM on 31 Aug 2007,
  • Bob Goodall wrote:

Dear Newsnight

Nodding –a global problem?
perhaps theres a pan-demic of nodding journalists across the globe?
Perhaps Newsnight viewers -a huge creative resource that is now being tapped - could suggest a remedy with creative intriguing alternatives to captivate jaded audiences? sort of half joking here,
Best wishes
Bob
±·²Ô²Ô²Ô²Ô²Ô²Ô²Ô²Ô²Ô²Ô²Ô²Ô²Ô²Ô²Ô…â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦

that said I made a film at Art School that gave you vertigo if you watched it too often!

from the Ryerson review of journalism blog (2006) (Makes me wonder where this sort of thing orginated)

Baffling Camera Techniques
Although I wouldn't say I have a favourite tv news program, I tend to gravitate towards Global News. I've always been critical of people who are star-struck over journalists, but I have to admit, I think I'd get a little giddy if I ever met Michael Kuss, Global's meteorologist.
But that's not the topic of my blog. I strayed from my usual 6:00p.m. news program tonight, and watched CityNews on City Tv. I find their camera techniques very distracting. There are far too many shots of the reporters nodding understandingly while listening to their interview subjects. It's really contrived.

I'm also not a big fan of Audra Brown's double camera stunt, where she holds two cameras and records herself taping something else. I don't understand the point. Does anyone have any insight?
Posted by on January 16, 2006 10:21 PM | Permalink

Comments
As for the annoying camera techniques, CITY has been doing that for eons. Swinging the camera around to catch a few empathetic nodding shots has been employed by reporters since the dawn of man, but the videographers photographing themselves, either in a mirror, or car window, or whatever, is kind of CITY's annoying little trademark.
Way back when I was in J-school, we had it pounded into us that "the reporter isn't the story, the story is the story". I guess that's gone by the wayside.
Posted by: Nancy | January 18, 2006 09:11 PM

  • 15.
  • At 04:24 PM on 31 Aug 2007,
  • Gordon Neil wrote:

Dear editor...The question you pose in your introduction to the Shariff piece was "So is Nawaz Shariff really the best hope Pakistan has for a return to democracy and an end to the political unrest which has been shaking the country in the last few months ? " Unfortunately having now seen your 'interview' I am none the wiser. Newsnight's unique selling point is analysis but there seemed little of that in evidence in this piece. Apart from the simple fact that he was an ex prime minister ousted by the Military who is now wishing to return, we learned little. Could this interview not have been embedded within a brief contextual frame outlining Shariff's record, whom in Pakistan he represented, whom is backers were and how he and his party contrast with the Bhutto group etc. ? I accept that the Newsnight team are working within tight deadlines but context is what Newsnight is all about, is it not ?

  • 16.
  • At 05:44 PM on 31 Aug 2007,
  • Paul wrote:

Dear Newsnight Editor,
Kudos on the Nawaz Sharif interview. It was a real surprise and really refreshing to see this. I know the ´óÏó´«Ã½ would never admit such a thing but for a long time it has been very pro Benazir Bhutto, always inviting her onto programmes as an "expert". So well done for that. In contrast to the previous poster I'm glad the editorial team did not have a piece on Mr Sharif's record as it would almost certainly have been biased to a pro Benazir Bhutto campaign which as Mr Sharif is quite a complicated politician who made many mistakes would have been difficult to do fairly.

  • 17.
  • At 10:34 PM on 03 Sep 2007,
  • Zameer Hussain wrote:

The Sharif interview did not truly scrutinise Nawaz Sharif. It simply gave him an opportunity to portray himself as a democratic leader who wanted to lead Pakistan again. The interview failed to pick up on Sharif's anti democartic move ordering his parties supporters to storm the Supreme Court during the 1990s. Hardly the actions of a democratic leader who schoffs at Musharrafs attempt to sack its Cheif Justice. In addition to him being the political brain child of former Islamist Military Dicatator; Zia ul Haq, which led him to attempt to pass Sharia laws. Hardly democratic as it does not seek to represent the will of the majority of Pakistanis who happen to be moderates, along with minority religious groups being subject to laws which bear no importance to them. The interview clearly failed to pick up on these points, infact it enabled Sharif to portray himself as a responsible democaric leader. Something which many in the West and the newsnight team failed to take a note of his previous legislative agenda in Pakistan.

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