I Haz an Ouch

Note to self, do not bang head on metal hasp used to lock chicken run door when bending down to shut bolt at the bottom of the door. Waiting for the egg to turn blue...

Funnily enough, if I'd done this falling off the bike I've no doubt someone would have told me by now I should have been wearing a helmet - noone has yet told me I should wear a helmet to let the chickens into the run.

Yet. Anyway, I've banged my head enough (and still not knocked in any sense). It was a slight dent to my ego when Mel said you're not about to faint are you? I've broken my arm and thought seriously about driving myself to A&E before, I wasn't about to faint with a wee bang and cut to the head!

Rant (oh yes) follows other potential blips (that were much less about what happened to me today than the 'ouch' blip):

Alfa Romeo Giulia Sport
Bin Strike Bites in the New Town!
Man + Van

And something from last night that means the cat is going to kill me:

In Ten Seconds...

Now, the rant. Pre-prepared (sort of) today - it's a message I sent to BBC Breakfast after yet another morning of annoying nonsense, the camel's back has suffered one too many straws...

-------------

Dear Sirs

It is a source of disappointment when I find myself having to complain about the falling editorial quality of such an august institution as the BBC, but your Breakfast show has driven me to despair in recent months.

As an Englishman living in Edinburgh I have to face up to accusation of the media being England-centric, and with BBC Breakfast it is remarkably difficult to counter that accusation. It is not only the preponderance of stories firmly centred on England at the expense of the other nations of the UK, but also stories that will refer specifically to places like Chesterfield, Leighton Buzzard or Milton Keynes, while anything north of the border happens in that amorphous blob 'Scotland', rather than Glasgow, Dundee or Peterhead. People will always travel from Watford to 'Scotland'; a plane will crash in 'Scotland'; a dignitary will attend a reception in 'Scotland'; or there will be a case of swine flu in 'Scotland'. If you think that this is splitting hairs I would suggest you report on events happening in 'England' in the same manner and see if you get calls asking for more specific locations.

This morning there was simply another example which also showed a lack of research. It is certainly a shame that the Royal Show is in its last year, but I'm sure the organisers of the Royal Highland Show, which takes place at Ingliston, near Edinburgh (in 'Scotland') every year, and which was attended by the Queen a week ago, would take issue with the version in 'England' being described as the 'biggest of its kind'. The Royal Highland Show attracts almost twice as many visitors over the event.

Over and above this geographical blind spot I am more perturbed by the slide of BBC news in general, and Breakfast in particular, into Daily Mail style hysteria and hyperbole. This morning the statistics for a report into immigrants receiving help to find housing were discussed. All fine and well, with the figures presented for all to see. The rest of the piece was then handed over to the public to text in their views, a perfect and seized upon opportunity for basic xenophobia to be presented as fact.

I spoke to the editor of a local newspaper once about the comments section of the online newspaper and he hated having to allow comments to be posted. But he also felt it was something that in this day and age should be done. I don't know if there is this same feeling at the BBC that people 'must have their say.' But here is what such texts add to insight into stories.

Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

It's simply a minor form of reality television with people jumping at the chance to have their name read out on television. When listening to views on a complicated or complex issue I wonder who I want to hear the views of more. A couple of members of the general public distilling their unresearched gut-feeling heard-down-the-pub comments into the length of a text message, or one or two individuals who actually know what they are talking about? The sad thing is, I'm probably part of that demographic you think this is all aimed at.

The BBC seems to have gone the way of spoon-feeding information, turning Breakfast into some sort of 'edutainment' show that neither informs nor amuses. And once you get to the stage of the show just being background noise there are the small things that start to grate. Carol Kirkwood referring to Bill Turnbull as 'Billy'; attempts by Kate Silverton to crack jokes (though, to be fair, that does not make me wish for the return of the awful Natasha Kaplinsky); and inane, repetitive, uninsightful questioning, all combine to force me to eat my shredded wheat that little bit faster in the mornings so I can turn the television off.

And now that I have realised this is happening the decision to leave it off in the first place over breakfast is easy, falling back instead on Radio 4, which has at least maintained a journalistic tradition, shorn of much of the wailing and gnashing of teeth and opinion dressed up as fact.

I'm sure the loss of one viewer will not hit you hard, but the danger of you becoming GMTV, just with a different sofa, is there. Hopefully someone in BBC television news will realise this at some point, and will halt the slide into News-Lite, but things have gone so far I have my doubts. In the meantime, if you've got this far, thank you for reading. In the meantime I'll keep hoping that BBC television news rediscovers a bit of pride in what it does.

Regards
Anthony Robson