RSSReporting live… for no apparent reason
October 2, 2006 · Written by Joel
It’s 10:25pm. Westminster is closed, and yet on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or Sky News, the news anchor declares “Now reporting live from Westminster is….”. Cut to a shot of some poor news reporter standing in the dark and pouring rain when everyone else has gone home and nothing new is going to happen, telling us what happened 5 hours ago when everyone did pack up and went home.
Why? Why oh why? It’s even worse at crime scenes. Standing a quarter of a mile away from the scene next to some police “Do Not Cross” tape and an indescript field, reporting exactly what could have been reported from a nice warm studio. Or could have been prerecorded. Are they expecting the murderer to creep back into the area mumbling something about retrieving his favourite knife? Is a grizzly but loveable detective about to let out a scream of “Eureka!” as they discover a bloody handprint? I just wish someone would say once “There’s no point me being here. Absolutely nothing has happened since my last report at 6pm as everyone has gone home and my wife has put the dinner in the dog.” Stop it, please. Journalism for the sake of journalism.
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I like the weather people outside with their brolly up getting battered by the wind. You’d think they’d have known what it would be like out and stayed in.
[...] We’ve previously mentioned the lunacy of television reporters standing outside Downing Street and courts at 11pm for no reason whatsoever, but sometimes there is a good reason for being out and about. Having a job title like ‘pitchside reporter’ is one of them. You can’t be safely ensconced in the studio with a job title like that can you? “Errr boss I was wondering if you could change my title to ‘nice and warm next to a fire reporter’?”. [...]