OT; And now live from.....

[The Medway Handyman]

Just been watching BBC News South East.

1st story was about a girl injured at an Ashford school by a thrown pencil. Cut to 'live' reporter standing outside closed school.

Next was the fracking debate in Balcombe. Cut to 'live' presenter standing in completely empty country lane.

Followed by baggage handler convicted of drug smuggling. Cut to 'live' presenter standing outside the (closed) Old Bailey.

Last item - a school in Dartford that had shown great improvement. Cut to 'live' reporter standing outside another closed school.

Four different presenters in four different locations, no doubt on expenses, all freezing their nuts off, for no apparent reason.

Why can't they do this from the studio & save the travel expenses?

[The Medway Handyman]

Just been watching BBC News South East.

1st story was about a girl injured at an Ashford school by a thrown pencil. Cut to 'live' reporter standing outside closed school.

Next was the fracking debate in Balcombe. Cut to 'live' presenter standing in completely empty country lane.

Followed by baggage handler convicted of drug smuggling. Cut to 'live' presenter standing outside the (closed) Old Bailey.

Last item - a school in Dartford that had shown great improvement. Cut to 'live' reporter standing outside another closed school.

Four different presenters in four different locations, no doubt on expenses, all freezing their nuts off, for no apparent reason.

Why can't they do this from the studio & save the travel expenses?

[Fredxxx]

So people like you, who have time, have something to watch?

[bert]

In message , The Medway Handyman writes

• camera crew + producer etc etc

Because that would reduce their self importance cut jobs and save money. But how else can they justify their production lunches, huge salaries and generous expenses? It also means they would have to do more work and produce better and more informed reports. They don't care about licence fee payers.

[Tim Watts]

On Thursday 23 January 2014 19:15 The Medway Handyman wrote in uk.d-i-y:

They probably did - I expect it was green-screened! And the backdrop was probably library footage - cynical, moi?

[Brian Gaff]

Hmm, or just put the right picture behind whoever is reading the item. Yes, you normally only go there if there is some people to talk to or whatever. Strange.

My local paper has it covered. They sit in their offices ring up people in the area and get the story from a few, and cheekily ask them to send in their mobile phone pictures w which then appear in the paper apparently. Brian

[Artic]

The Medway Handyman scribbled...

They are not just presenters, they're journalists and as such they need to research the story. You don't think the BBC would get their stories from the local paper, Twatter or Failbook do you?

[Artic]

Brian Gaff scribbled...

And people wonder why sales of newspapers are dropping through the floor.

[alan]

The usual ploy on local radio is to have a phone in program where people can complain about local services. The (non) story then appears all of the next day as the main item in the news.

[damduck-egg]

On Thu, 23 Jan 2014 21:18:27 -0000, Artic

Half of them seem to be weather presenters who having been whittled down /got pregnant taken maternity leave/paid off etc seem to worm their way back in and get little jobs like this awarded to them.

G.Harman

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They are reporters, not presenters. Who presumably are at the scene to get the latest news. If they were in the studio why not have the main presenter just read their bit and save even more money? Or, of course, save even more money by doing it without pictures. Ie radio.

[Artic]

[e-mail] scribbled...

Most weather presenters started out doing other tv jobs. Letterbox gob Sian Lloyd knew sod all about the weather before she got the ITV gig.

[Artic]

Dave Plowman (News) scribbled...

It wouldn't be tv then, would it!

Doh.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I often listen to the TV news, but seldom actually watch it

[Lobster]

On 23 Jan 2014, "Dave Plowman (News)" grunted:

I was watching the BBC News at Ten last night, and funnily enough mentioned this issue to SWMBO. The political reporter Nick Robinson was reporting on something 'political', and as usual was standing outside 10 Downing St to do so. Nothing else was happening on screen; it was a live picture judging by the occasionally movements in the background of Plod on sentry duty (and presumably with all the new 'honesty/transparancy' guidelines at the Beeb these days they wouldn't be allowed to pretend otherwise).

How utterly pointless to have to travel all the way to Downing St to stand in the drizzle at 10pm, when he could just as easily sit at home and do it via Skype...

[tony sayer]

In article , Lobster scribeth thus

Have you ever thought they might have him in the studio and are back projecting him with the downing street background;?...

If his broadband is up to it of course. They do often go out get a clip and then transfer it back to base via a 3G card, may take a little time but it does work if you can get a 3G signal thats good enough...

[Adrian]

It'd probably require him to go further from where he's been all day to sit "in the studio". He probably spends all day in/around the Palace of Westminster and Portcullis House, which are about five minutes wander from Downing St.

Oh, wait - the Beeb's political unit are actually based right next door to the Palace of Westminster anyway. Makes sense. So it's merely a question of two people walking five minutes.

[harryagain]

Why do they need two news presenters?

[stuart noble]

FWIW, when that message box pops up to say your post wasn't sent, you can safely ignore it. Next time you look the message will be there. It seems Virgin are going to take forever to sort this (intermittent IME) problem out

[stuart noble]

Any sign of the cat?