Post by Teddy Bear on Sept 23, 2014 14:41:11 GMT
The author of the piece below looks at the problems facing Newsnight, which I'm happy to report is in decline, and asks whether anything can be done to save it.
For as long as the BBC continue to pursue their left wing agenda the simple answer is NO.
For as long as the BBC continue to pursue their left wing agenda the simple answer is NO.
Can Evan Davis save Newsnight?
The BBC flagship current affairs programme is in crisis, says Gillian Reynolds
By Gillian Reynolds
The arrival of Evan Davis on BBC2’s Newsnight on September 29 is anxiously awaited. Why the anxiety? Because Newsnight, once a BBC powerhouse of political influence, is in a state of worrying decline. It has a small nightly audience, around 600,000. That wouldn’t matter if the audience were special and the guests the best. But top politicians and serious experts often scorn Newsnight now. Will the arrival of Davis be the start of a relaunch?
Ian Katz, Newsnight’s latest editor, arrived from the Guardian last year. Jeremy Paxman, roost ruler for 25 years, soon announced he would be leaving the programme, was persuaded to stay until this June. In August the BBC announced the new “lead anchor” would be Evan Davis, team member of Radio 4’s Today for the past six years.
Today was not pleased. Seriously not pleased. Its audience is bigger than Newsnight’s, (6.7 million each week for Today, 4.1 million for Newsnight) Prime Ministers, Chancellors and Foreign Secretaries do Today. They avoid Newsnight It looked like another instance of the BBC not valuing radio. Davis said he hesitated before accepting Newsnight’s offer, mentioned a personal approach from Director-General Tony Hall that made up his mind. Why would the Director-General be personally courting presenters? Possibly Hall had in mind the tide of BBC crisis that engulfed Newsnight in 2012, first losing the Jimmy Savile exposure to ITV, then the libelling of Lord McAlpine, sweeping out newly appointed Director-General George Entwistle, sweeping Hall in.
Hall, after leaving the BBC in 2001, spent his next twelve years rescuing the Royal Opera House. A year after being called back, his part in the Davis appointment indicates personal concern. He had already hired a new Director of News and Current Affairs, James Harding, once the youngest editor of The Times and a fierce BBC opponent. Having left the Murdoch empire in 2012, he joined the BBC in August 2013, apparently at Hall’s invitation. After less than a year as BBC News supremo Harding may have felt he needed an advocacy more powerful than his alone. Perhaps Hall and Harding together made Davis an offer he couldn’t refuse. Not necessarily money, more “It’s up to you to save the show, kid.”
For Newsnight is clearly in trouble. Not just from its own audience figures, BBC 2’s are dropping overall and every broadcast news and current affairs show nowadays is challenged by websites. The Huffington Post and Vice, for instance, are cheaper to produce, faster in response, untrammelled by broadcasting codes on impartiality and balance. The hystero-sphere of Twitter and Facebook is more familiar to people under 40 than any sombre studio-based comment show.
Yet people over 40 who once looked to Newsnight for informed insight seldom find it there now. Can it win them back? A radical rethink already seems to be on the cards. Editor Ian Katz recently took to the pages of the Financial Times to mourn the death of the political interview on television. How odd, I thought. If it’s that bad, why hasn’t he done something about it on his own show?
Former Cabinet Minister Peter Mandelson, writing in response, said politicians don’t bother with Newsnight any more because “the interviewer asks knee jerk questions, barely listens to the answer, ticks each one off and moves on to the next. It’s not worth going to bed late for.” He went further, accusing Katz of persuading him onto Jeremy Paxman’s farewell programme to reflect on one topic, then expecting him to react to another.
That will have struck many a bell, political and otherwise. Paxman’s attacking style made his reputation but, over time, it helped destroy that of Newsnight. Not only did he perfect the art of gladiatorial verbal display he made others aspire to it. Turn on Newsnight now and there are Kirsty Wark, Laura Kuenssberg, Emily Maitliss and Allegra Stratton all barking away, Paxman style, barely waiting for an answer before they interrupt with a follow-up.
If Katz is now advocating a style more thoughtful, it’s not yet evident. An issue which requires several sides to be aired still has too many people given too little time to say anything. Someone losing their temper or ranting may engage the audience’s wandering mind and catch fire on YouTube but it’s hardly the heart of serious dialogue. Only an editor has the power to change such things.
Personally, I don’t consider Evan Davis Today’s best general interviewer. He too often seems detached, inattentive to what a guest is saying. But when he engages he’s good, as on his own show, Radio 4’s The Bottom Line, talking business. Colleagues past and present praise his wit, self-deprecating humour, confidence and, above all, his ability to make figures intelligible.
Now that’s something Newsnight could use. It’s supposed to be Laura Kuenssberg’s forte but so far no one has given her the chance to display anything beyond the persona of a battling budgie. Indeed, the whole tone of Newsnight is quarrelsome, querulous, cross. The need for a fresh start is urgent. There’s a General Election eight months away, BBC Charter renewal in 2016 and a new Chairman of the BBC Trust, Rona Fairhead, scrutinising the accounts.
Harding has to cut £20 million from his overall budget. Newsnight is expensive and, lacking political significance and public popularity, could look like the white elephant in the newsroom. What might it offer that is missing elsewhere? I suggest Authority: not to be mistaken for dominance. Depth: not to be confused with massed data. Manners. All should be available from the Newsnight team. An editor should know how to spot such qualities and employ them.
Meanwhile, I wish Katz would stop Kirsty Wark looking as if she is about to inflict six of the best on any topic. Give Allegra Stratton space for analysis. Ban Emily Maitliss from ogling the camera. Forbid all presenters their distracting walkabouts. Davis alone cannot achieve such transformations. I fear the programme he is joining is haunted. I hope Katz possesses suitable powers of exorcism.
The BBC flagship current affairs programme is in crisis, says Gillian Reynolds
By Gillian Reynolds
The arrival of Evan Davis on BBC2’s Newsnight on September 29 is anxiously awaited. Why the anxiety? Because Newsnight, once a BBC powerhouse of political influence, is in a state of worrying decline. It has a small nightly audience, around 600,000. That wouldn’t matter if the audience were special and the guests the best. But top politicians and serious experts often scorn Newsnight now. Will the arrival of Davis be the start of a relaunch?
Ian Katz, Newsnight’s latest editor, arrived from the Guardian last year. Jeremy Paxman, roost ruler for 25 years, soon announced he would be leaving the programme, was persuaded to stay until this June. In August the BBC announced the new “lead anchor” would be Evan Davis, team member of Radio 4’s Today for the past six years.
Today was not pleased. Seriously not pleased. Its audience is bigger than Newsnight’s, (6.7 million each week for Today, 4.1 million for Newsnight) Prime Ministers, Chancellors and Foreign Secretaries do Today. They avoid Newsnight It looked like another instance of the BBC not valuing radio. Davis said he hesitated before accepting Newsnight’s offer, mentioned a personal approach from Director-General Tony Hall that made up his mind. Why would the Director-General be personally courting presenters? Possibly Hall had in mind the tide of BBC crisis that engulfed Newsnight in 2012, first losing the Jimmy Savile exposure to ITV, then the libelling of Lord McAlpine, sweeping out newly appointed Director-General George Entwistle, sweeping Hall in.
Hall, after leaving the BBC in 2001, spent his next twelve years rescuing the Royal Opera House. A year after being called back, his part in the Davis appointment indicates personal concern. He had already hired a new Director of News and Current Affairs, James Harding, once the youngest editor of The Times and a fierce BBC opponent. Having left the Murdoch empire in 2012, he joined the BBC in August 2013, apparently at Hall’s invitation. After less than a year as BBC News supremo Harding may have felt he needed an advocacy more powerful than his alone. Perhaps Hall and Harding together made Davis an offer he couldn’t refuse. Not necessarily money, more “It’s up to you to save the show, kid.”
For Newsnight is clearly in trouble. Not just from its own audience figures, BBC 2’s are dropping overall and every broadcast news and current affairs show nowadays is challenged by websites. The Huffington Post and Vice, for instance, are cheaper to produce, faster in response, untrammelled by broadcasting codes on impartiality and balance. The hystero-sphere of Twitter and Facebook is more familiar to people under 40 than any sombre studio-based comment show.
Yet people over 40 who once looked to Newsnight for informed insight seldom find it there now. Can it win them back? A radical rethink already seems to be on the cards. Editor Ian Katz recently took to the pages of the Financial Times to mourn the death of the political interview on television. How odd, I thought. If it’s that bad, why hasn’t he done something about it on his own show?
Former Cabinet Minister Peter Mandelson, writing in response, said politicians don’t bother with Newsnight any more because “the interviewer asks knee jerk questions, barely listens to the answer, ticks each one off and moves on to the next. It’s not worth going to bed late for.” He went further, accusing Katz of persuading him onto Jeremy Paxman’s farewell programme to reflect on one topic, then expecting him to react to another.
That will have struck many a bell, political and otherwise. Paxman’s attacking style made his reputation but, over time, it helped destroy that of Newsnight. Not only did he perfect the art of gladiatorial verbal display he made others aspire to it. Turn on Newsnight now and there are Kirsty Wark, Laura Kuenssberg, Emily Maitliss and Allegra Stratton all barking away, Paxman style, barely waiting for an answer before they interrupt with a follow-up.
If Katz is now advocating a style more thoughtful, it’s not yet evident. An issue which requires several sides to be aired still has too many people given too little time to say anything. Someone losing their temper or ranting may engage the audience’s wandering mind and catch fire on YouTube but it’s hardly the heart of serious dialogue. Only an editor has the power to change such things.
Personally, I don’t consider Evan Davis Today’s best general interviewer. He too often seems detached, inattentive to what a guest is saying. But when he engages he’s good, as on his own show, Radio 4’s The Bottom Line, talking business. Colleagues past and present praise his wit, self-deprecating humour, confidence and, above all, his ability to make figures intelligible.
Now that’s something Newsnight could use. It’s supposed to be Laura Kuenssberg’s forte but so far no one has given her the chance to display anything beyond the persona of a battling budgie. Indeed, the whole tone of Newsnight is quarrelsome, querulous, cross. The need for a fresh start is urgent. There’s a General Election eight months away, BBC Charter renewal in 2016 and a new Chairman of the BBC Trust, Rona Fairhead, scrutinising the accounts.
Harding has to cut £20 million from his overall budget. Newsnight is expensive and, lacking political significance and public popularity, could look like the white elephant in the newsroom. What might it offer that is missing elsewhere? I suggest Authority: not to be mistaken for dominance. Depth: not to be confused with massed data. Manners. All should be available from the Newsnight team. An editor should know how to spot such qualities and employ them.
Meanwhile, I wish Katz would stop Kirsty Wark looking as if she is about to inflict six of the best on any topic. Give Allegra Stratton space for analysis. Ban Emily Maitliss from ogling the camera. Forbid all presenters their distracting walkabouts. Davis alone cannot achieve such transformations. I fear the programme he is joining is haunted. I hope Katz possesses suitable powers of exorcism.