h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Having not watched it in ages I can't bare to watch the rest of it. It's turned into the Sun.

The first item was huge voyeuristic detail about the latest person arresated in a big murder trial. Then a lot of speculative twaddle about someone possibly escaping the country in a Burka. Something about a bionic hand. Something about some teacher saying Santa doesn't exist!

Crikey it was one utterly simple minded moronic item after another.......

Let's just hope it's a very very silly phase. I'm pretty sure most people are going to get heartily sick of this twaddle. I can sort of understand that someone might want to buy a tabloid to relax over a tea break. But for the BBC to do it is laughable. Apart from anything else it's so ****ing boring, they just haven't the faintest idea that to do 'tabloid' you need to be funny. Not standing up in a smart suit trying to sound truthful and serious.

Hmmm. I only really watch "Newsnight" with any regularity. I used to watch C4 News before I started working evenings....

I was seriously shocked how tabloidy it was.

I also regularly watch Newsnight and sometimes C4 7pm news. It's become like the difference between a 'broadsheet' and a 'tabloid'. Maybe I was particularly unlucky. But I found it worrying.

Hmmm well I do supposed that BBC1 being the beebs mainstream flagship channel is likely to pitch its news at a more populist level then most "hootooizens" owuld be entirely comfortable with.

Could be worse, it could be "Sky News".....

I too avoid the obvious news programmes, sticking with C4, More4 (occasionally, usually so I don't forget to watch The Daily Show) and Newsnight. I think the ITV news team must have mistakenly thought The Day Today and Brass Eye were examples of best practice.

To Clair Raynor

"So if two men cam at you would you beat them both off?"

How on Earth did she not notice?

Still not as good as Foxy saying that "Peadophiles had more genetically in common with crabs than you or me, there is no evidence for this but it is a scientific fact".

Oh yes, and Bernard Manning's 'Cake is a made up drug.'

What a lot of snobs you are. bbc dont make the news. they report it. the stories they showed are the same as everone elses.

They do choose which items and use, how much time to devote to them and the manner of presentation though. The BBC Six O'Clock news has half an hour to cover a lot of ground but seems to devote a disproportionate amount of time to some items which leaves little time for others. Watching the ITV news feels to me like standing in a showroom for huge televisions!

All news coverage has its faults, but some has less than others.

What I couldn't stand tonight was all that silly voyeuristic nonsense about the latest arrest person and then speculation about someone wearing a burka. When I watch news I want hard facts. So much of the rest of tv is like a comic. If I want tabloid shit, I'll go to the takeaway. At least tabloids are vaguely witty.

Anyway I've learnt my lesson. I'll stick to 7pm C4 for proper news and newsnight for comment.

And the gits were suggesting Santa wasn't real, even the tabloids don't overstep that mark.

"Yes, Virginia, There *IS* Someone Sneaking Out of the Country in a Burka!"

It's Christmas. Almost as much of a silly season as the silly season.

I'm at a bit of a lose here. What else should they have been reporting?

Like it, lump or loathe it, the Suffolk murders are the number news story in the UK atm, and another arrest being made is big news.
The burkha story is big news because the press have made it such, albeit that he could be wearing a nun costume and appearing in the sound of music for all the 'evidence' that has been produced so far.

I found the style of presentaion tackily sensationalist and short on facts. So very different from C4's presentation style. I just didn't remember the BBC news 'feeling; so different from C4 before. Interestingly the 10pm BBC news seemed to spend more time reporting international stories as well as home news; I presume that must be a deliberate policy decision.