Fiona Bruce - News at Ten

[hawkeye]

Anyone else pick up on News at Ten presenter Fiona Bruce's opening item on the coroner's report finding that the terrorist bomb that killed Fusilier Gordon Gentle in Basra in 2004 could have been prevented? The inquest found that Electronic Counter Measures equipment that would have forestalled the remotely fired detonation against Gentle's Landrover was in storage in Basra but had not been issued owing to 'miscommunications and logistics errors' by the Ministry of Defence. What was disturbing, though not nearly so much as the tragic waste of a young soldier's life, was Bruce's reading of the news item. Whilst her words were strictly to the point, her emotive delivery was such that it openly implied her complete disapproval of the MoD; this without the merest attempt to explain the facts behind the finding. In fact, it wasn't even her own report. Having heavily biased us toward her own view, she then handed over to a BBC colleague 'on site' somewhere on location in London, who delivered his own personal comments. Whatever happened to the idea that newsreaders should simply read the news without bias? Op-Ed and Comment is highly desirable from informed sources, but they should be clearly identified. I cannot believe the BBC News editors have sunk so low as to allow their newsreaders to blatantly air their own views, however well they are disguised.

[Teddy Bear]

I never saw this particular broadcast Hawkeye, but I'm familiar from other stories with the dynamic you describe. I've come to the conclusion that:
1. Those that can - do.
2. Those that can't - teach.
3. Those that can't teach - administrate.
4. Those that can't administrate - become journalists, and redress their feelings of inadequacy by knocking all of the preceding every chance they get.
This way they get to feel wiser and more important, though when examined on how well they perform the task demanded of them - to report news impartially, they can be seen to be woefully inadequate.
It's a vicious circle!