Was the BBC's coverage of Mandela's death over the top?

[This is a separate issue to Nelson Mandela's death which has it's own thread. This thread is about the BBC]

The BBC news coverage last night was way over the top. I was watching another BBC channel and it kept flashing up a message saying 'Breaking News on BBC1 Now' - of course I looked straight away in case it was something serious which might affect me and saw it was Nelson Mandela had finally died.

So completely expected news and not worth interrupting things for.

When I watched the news show at 10pm it was nothing but NM's death for at least an hour and I gave up on getting any other news. Totally over the top for something so expected and I don't much like the 'breaking news' format anyway, unless it's very significant news like 9/11 for instance.

Much better to have a considered programme on his life sometime over the few days, which I'm sure is coming anyway.

It's the same with many similar events...

For example, back in July, we had days and days of ""Overprivileged rich woman gives birth"... in April we had days of "despised old woman dies"...

Its ok it being on but give it a break every so often and stick some real news on.

[This is a separate issue to Nelson Mandela's death which has it's own thread. This thread is about the BBC]

 

The BBC news coverage last night was way over the top. I was watching another BBC channel and it kept flashing up a message saying 'Breaking News on BBC1 Now' - of course I looked straight away in case it was something serious which might affect me and saw it was Nelson Mandela had finally died.

 

So completely expected news and not worth interrupting things for.

 

When I watched the news show at 10pm it was nothing but NM's death for at least an hour and I gave up on getting any other news. Totally over the top for something so expected and I don't much like the 'breaking news' format anyway, unless it's very significant news like 9/11 for instance.

 

Much better to have a considered programme on his life sometime over the few days, which I'm sure is coming anyway.

I like the banner-we used to have pretty woman on vhs and half way through it announced that we were at war in the faulklands (or something like that)

Yesterday though we checked what it was then went back to what we were watching-something that required subtitles. The banner covered the darn subtitles:confused:

Also the live interview with a reporter from johannesburg showed him in front of a bright sunny day-I assume this was a picture but it was confusing because it was midnight in johannesburg:huh:

Sky's coverage was even worse.

They cut to a reporter on the scene who was covering the people dancing - the woman was nearly in tears about the people singing and dancing.

It's the same with many similar events...

 

For example, back in July, we had days and days of ""Overprivileged rich woman gives birth"... in April we had days of "despised old woman dies"...

Spot on, I think we're the the hapless victims of '24 hour news', although the death of one of the icons of the 21st Century is always likely to garner more column inches than what's going on in Towie

Ps having said that Ive just learned something new, the then Ambassador to South Africa, Lord Renwick remembers Mandela and Thatcher actually getting on and her hatred of the apartheid regime.

The BBC's coverage of most news events of late is over the top.

The Glasgow helicopter crash for one. At one stage last Sunday they had live coverage in the Cathedral - that's fair enough - but while the Bishop was speaking the BBC newswoman was narrating over him, and giving an overview of what he was actually saying.

I kept flicking between BBC and Sky - who had the decency not to talk over the top of him.

BBC output should be scrambled anyway and paid for on subscription to anyone who wants it.

Sky's coverage was even worse.

 

They cut to a reporter on the scene who was covering the people dancing - the woman was nearly in tears about the people singing and dancing.

Sky is always worse, but I suppose one of the things I'm complaining about is the BBC lowering it's standards to compete with Sky.

Of course there's going to be an extended news for things like this, but it would have been useful to have some British news on the day there were floods on the east coast and the chancellor revealed his autumn statement.

I also hate the way the BBC has to give a warning before just about every news item, either flash photography or for items viewers may find distressing. Well of course the news will contain these things!

And the BBC has recently made the news more distressing by showing dead bodies, something that always used to be taboo. There's absolutely no need to show dead bodies on the news. That can be covered in the narration, we don't need to see the gory detail.

There have been months of preparation for Mandela's death, with lots of material ready to go. The BBC seem to have stumped themselves though with it happening at the same time as a major domestic situation, and the announcement coming at midnight, when the media had all been briefed that any announcement would happen during daylight.