Things which annoy me about TV journalism

I'm hating the constant whir of helicopters which accompanies any outside broadcast. Apart from the shameful waste of fuel (in this day and age), it serves no journalistic purpose at all. A newsreader intones 'those dots are people. One of them is someone important talking to journalists. One of those journalists works for us. Let's ask her/him what's being said'. Journalist: 'I can't hear a thing. There's a bloody helicopter hovering above my bald patch'.

It's just a desperate attempt to add drama to undramatic situations, or to situations which are dramatic but aren't recognised as such by media folk who fear words. The low point of this helicopter journalism was the pursuit of Nick Clegg's car from King's Cross station to Lib Dem headquarters, which filled 20 minutes of BBC coverage last Friday.*

Clegg gets off the train. Journalist announces that Clegg's going to Lib Dem HQ. You'd expect something else to fill the time until Clegg arrives at said HQ to make a statement. But no, we have to follow the car all the way to generate an artificial sense of drama.

Related to this non-journalism is the pointless Outside Broadcast. Like Helicopter Journalism, it betrays contempt for the viewer, who is assumed to be deeply stupid. A few days ago, the Queen's constitutional role was discussed. Rather than ask an expert in constitutional history, we had Nicholas Witchell, the 'Royal Correspondent' (he isn't) outside Buckingham Palace, because viewers wouldn't understand that the subject was the Queen if they couldn't see the Queen's house.

What's the news, Nick? Liz coming out to have a word is she?

'The Queen isn't here. She's in Windsor, as she is most weekends'.

'Thanks Nick. Back to the bloody studio'. I want my licence fee back.

Here's Nick Witchell's finest hour:


*Actually, the most gratuitous use of helicopters ever was Flying Gardeners, a show in which a helicopter was used to fly some gardeners to a garden to do some gardening. A second helicopter was used to film the first helicopter flying the gardeners to the garden to do some gardening.

The environmental damage must have been incalculable. Clearly the name of the show came before any thought was given to content. It angered me so much that I actually made a formal complaint to the BBC. I doubt that they took any notice of me, but the show didn't last long, presumably because it was such a stupid and wasteful idea.