Last month, one Channel 4 News report received more viewer complaints than any other C4 programme and another became the focus of February’s biggest forum debate… In response to this, this month’s edition of The TV Show featured a debate on one of these issues – the voluntary media blackout surrounding Prince Harry’s tour of duty in Afghanistan, which came to an end last week when American blog, The Drudge Report, revealed the news.
Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow came under a flurry of criticism from viewers after he praised Drudge for revealing Prince Harry’s deployment to the Helmand province. Dorothy Byrne (head of news and current affairs for Channel 4) appeared live on The TV Show to respond to these compaints. She explained that news must always present both sides of a debate, either by talking to guests with different opinions, or – if interviewees have similar points of view – getting the presenter to ask questions from an alternative point of view, as Jon Snow did on this occasion.
Also on the show was David Mannion, editor-in-chief at ITV News. David said that he felt the news blackout was perfectly legitimate. He told The TV Show audience that for many years the media has agreed to delay reports when security is at risk – visits by the Prime Minister to regions at war, for example, are usually reported after the event, rather than in advance or at the time.
Channel 4 News has also generated a great deal of chat on the C4 forums recently. In particular, forum members discussed Krishnan Guru-Murthy’s interview with George Galloway on the day that Fidel Castro announced his retirement, where George Galloway accused Channel 4 of behaving like Fox News (well known for its right-wing editorial stance).
Dorothy Byrne said about this:
“There was an excellent package about Cuba which summarised fairly some key facts about the state of the country. It included the fact that Cuba has some very serious economic problems and is not a democratic country. These were facts Mr Galloway seemed to object to hearing.”
Dorothy also reminded me that, unlike Fox TV in America, the British press, including British television news is required to be duly impartial.
Did you enjoy The TV Show debate? What’s your opinion of Channel 4 News? Please let us know what you think…
