IS it my imagination, or are BBC1’s one, six and 10 o’clock national news broadcasts generally full of English news of no, or little, relevance to Ireland, Scotland and Wales? They may be of interest to English people living in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but what are people from these countries supposed to do for news when they are living in England? Is it laziness on the part of news editors, or do they think it is not important?
I have written to complain in the past but the BBC’s responses are full of PR speak and a “we can do no wrong” attitude.
A good example of the BBC’s failures was in last Friday’s six o’clock news. The usual report on the Commonwealth Games was broadcast but, apart from a short sentence without pictures about a Scottish gold medal in diving, no reference was made to any of the other five medals won by Scots.
One in particular was surely worthy of a report – the gold medal won by Alex Marshall, a member of the Scottish bowling team, his fifth after winning gold medals at the previous four Commonwealth Games.
Despite a telephone complaint, the same report was broadcast again at 10 o’clock.
Alistair McEwen
Edinburgh
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