BBC rant!

paddyrg

Unsurprisingly, it's complicated. Nilrem gives a good technical overview, but even just in sheer statistics terms it's complicated. Aberystwyth probably moan that all the Wales money is spent in Cardiff, Liverpool whine about Salford, etc. It comes down to how you draw boundaries to some extent, which is why through years of tinkering that York isn't in Yorkshire.

Also loads of TV is non-studio. Programmes that in the 60's could only be made in the studio are now made on location, and this is a good thing. A vtr used to be bigger than a fridge freezer even at the back end of the 80's - now you can actually go places with light cameras and decks.

There are still studios in the Midlands, they are smaller independent ones, technology means you can get by with less overhead.

kaya

the money is spent on the honest , down to earth psychic abilities of the staff, here is a clip where they reported on the collapse of one of the towers in america 20 mins before it happened , in one of the clips you can actually see the building still standing in the background that she is telling you has collapsed , 20 mins later it did ! anybody who thinks the BBC report honestly and with integrity needs to step off of their cloud and take a bite of reality . They are the propoganda machine of the governbent and Royal Family who extort money from people under false pretenses , they were granted a royal charter to charge for their services yet insist that you have to pay them if you watch ANY channel or broadcasts regardless of their origins
enjoy the clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tGOt9f3gKk

Mistral001

My TV aerial recently was faulty meaning that I could only receive BBC channels for a couple of months. I can tell you I was glad when i got it fixed. It was like a breath of fresh air. The BBC has gotten so self-centred and big-headed in recent years. If they are not discussing journalism and journalists, they are trying to explain lots of things to us about history, the world, life and everything as they were the only true source of knowledge in the whole world.

Nilrem

kaya wrote: »

the money is spent on the honest , down to earth psychic abilities of the staff, here is a clip where they reported on the collapse of one of the towers in america 20 mins before it happened , in one of the clips you can actually see the building still standing in the background that she is telling you has collapsed , 20 mins later it did ! anybody who thinks the BBC report honestly and with integrity needs to step off of their cloud and take a bite of reality . They are the propoganda machine of the governbent and Royal Family who extort money from people under false pretenses , they were granted a royal charter to charge for their services yet insist that you have to pay them if you watch ANY channel or broadcasts regardless of their origins
enjoy the clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tGOt9f3gKk

Yay for conspiracy theories.

News reporters/broadcasters make slips of the tongue all the time, usually it's laughed at if it's noticed at all.
It's not really surprising given that when a reporter or presenter is on air they can be receiving information from multiple sources through their ear pieces.
Depending on who they are/there personal preference, where they are, and what role they do, they can half half a dozen people talking to them, telling them anything from "we need to skip the bit on the budget, go straight to the bit on the murder case" or "we're running behind, make the current bit last another 15 seconds", to information on breaking news such as "fire fighters are pulling back from tower 7", which can get garbled when they try to present it.
It's a little like trying to read a book out load whilst listening (and paying attention to) the action at a football game, and the watching a film.

There are some great audio clips available where you can watch the same item of news with both the broadcast audio (IE the presenter or reporter speaking), and then with the information and instructions the presenter is getting through their earphone - I'm surprised there aren't many more serious slips that make it onto air.

In the case of 911 the news reporters where already reporting on the fall of two towers in a complex in an event that was shocking to pretty much everyone, and also hearing updates on other fires in the area, at addresses with similar names.
It's not overly surprising that someone at some point during the day got muddled on what they were hearing, and I suspect a lot more slips were made, but only the one that fits a conspiracy theory is ever heard about.

I know/hear people messing up giving their post code, or phone number on a regular basis, and that's something that for most people is almost automatic and doesn't require much thought, so I'm not surprised that in a high pressure situation, with lots of partial information incoming, that a reporter on a live broadcast might get their words or information muddled.

bugbyte_2

To reply to some of the points above - Yes the BBC does make some good content despite its blatantly liberal agenda; No, nobody can explain why the BBC whittled on about the 3rd tower collapsing when it obviously hadn't (and didn't have a good reason to either); No, having a strong media presence in the Midlands is perfectly feasible - until last year the BBC produced all of its nature content here, and to answer

It's okay, it's only the Midlands.

thats precisely the point, everyone here is too nice to complain, its not in their nature.

To give you an idea, in the 1960's Birmingham had a higher average wage than London, and was sucking up investment from around the country. The 'north' was in economic trouble, so the gov at the time in their wisdom passed acts of parliament that re-distributed Birmingham's industry around the country - for example BL built a factory in Liverpool which then turned militant which then infected the rest of BL which then brought the company down. There was even an act of parliament that restricted Birmingham's service industry growing - Birmingham was restricted in the amount of new office space it could build. This was of course unhelpful to Birmingham, kept London all powerful and didn't do the northern cities any favours.

The point of my rant was that it would be nice, just for once before I die, if the Government or its Quangos considered that 16m people large swathe of land between Eastenders and Gritty Northern dramas worthy of a look in and maybe a smidgin of representation.

mr_sharma

I don't mind paying the license fee, I think the BBC's great :A

If the license fee stops, you'll get the yakety-yaks boring on about how adverts are ruining Eastenders/The Archers/etc.

Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't. God bless the general public!

p00hsticks

bugbyte wrote: »

The point of my rant was that it would be nice, just for once before I die, if the Government or its Quangos considered that 16m people large swathe of land between Eastenders and Gritty Northern dramas worthy of a look in and maybe a smidgin of representation.

no one so far appears to have mentioned radio - there are certainly a number of local radio stations covering the Midlands area

bugbyte_2

p00hsticks wrote: »

no one so far appears to have mentioned radio - there are certainly a number of local radio stations covering the Midlands area

Radio 2 and Asian Network was moved out of Birmingham last year. I believe some of Radio WM is now based in Nottingham, which actually isn't in WM.

It's great when the best Birmingham can hope for is an occasional mention on the Weather Map! There is after all only 2.1 million people living here!

mr_sharma

You have The Archers though and a cool Mailbox building (according to this link anyway: http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/tours/birmingham.shtml)

bugbyte_2

Yes the Archers are still here but that is about it. The Mailbox is an office building / Harvey Nick's store. The BBC only rent a very small (diminishing) amount of it.