Post by charmbrights on Jan 8, 2015 10:32:44 GMT
When will the BBC stop the farce of making on-screen reporters stand in the open in inclement weather to make their reports from pointless locations?
For example whenever there is a report on anything involving the Prime Minister it seems that the reporter (and a camera crew) have to go to Downing Street to broadcast it, irrespective of where the Prime Minister is, even in some cases when he is out of the country. Similarly Nicholas Witchell has had to stand outside Buckingham Palace to deliver reports recently of events in the USA which were, in any case, denied by all concerned, and when no one involved was in the building.
Other examples are reports on UK troops' activities delivered from the pavement outside the Ministry of Defence building, and a report that parliament will reassemble the following day delivered from the green opposite the House of Commons, even though there were no MPs in the building, and none were interviewed. A reporter in a boat in the Solent (and a camera crew in another one) to show the recent grounding of a huge ship from several hundred yards away was utterly pointless and an unnecessary expense when a report of the event from the newsreader with an aerial photo and a map had led into the item.
Often these reports are delivered in the rain, or freezing conditions, and the location adds nothing to the report.
I do understand that reports which involve (for example) a photo opportunity for Ed Milliband visiting a factory will be filmed (carefully staged) in the factory, and that this "adds versimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing" political broadcast. I also understand that outside broadcasts from major disasters are sometimes necessary, but a photo in the background would often do the same job and waste less scarce resources (eg helicopters in flood areas).
For example whenever there is a report on anything involving the Prime Minister it seems that the reporter (and a camera crew) have to go to Downing Street to broadcast it, irrespective of where the Prime Minister is, even in some cases when he is out of the country. Similarly Nicholas Witchell has had to stand outside Buckingham Palace to deliver reports recently of events in the USA which were, in any case, denied by all concerned, and when no one involved was in the building.
Other examples are reports on UK troops' activities delivered from the pavement outside the Ministry of Defence building, and a report that parliament will reassemble the following day delivered from the green opposite the House of Commons, even though there were no MPs in the building, and none were interviewed. A reporter in a boat in the Solent (and a camera crew in another one) to show the recent grounding of a huge ship from several hundred yards away was utterly pointless and an unnecessary expense when a report of the event from the newsreader with an aerial photo and a map had led into the item.
Often these reports are delivered in the rain, or freezing conditions, and the location adds nothing to the report.
I do understand that reports which involve (for example) a photo opportunity for Ed Milliband visiting a factory will be filmed (carefully staged) in the factory, and that this "adds versimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing" political broadcast. I also understand that outside broadcasts from major disasters are sometimes necessary, but a photo in the background would often do the same job and waste less scarce resources (eg helicopters in flood areas).
