Can anyone tell me the last time the BBC showed Panorama on a Thursday night? I only ask because that's exactly what they are doing this week. There can only be two explanations...Is it
a) They don't want to risk political controversy with the government by spending an hour discussing its failures in midwifery prior to the elections and are therefore showing it at 8pm on polling day by which time most people have voted
or
b) All the hour long Panoramas are being broadcast on Thursdays at 8pm, in which case I shall get my coat...
It's usually shown on a Monday, as you know... "Panorama is on Mondays at 20:30 BST on BBC One" most people will have forgotten about it by the time it comes around to vote on the Thursday!!
ReplyDeleteHm, it seems they are showing another panorama on Mon, about "Murder at the World Cup"
Strange one, why not just show the midwife one the following Monday?!
Actually, maybe its just because it is an hour long programme instead of the usual 30 mins ... they don't want to mess up Monday nights schedule?!
ReplyDeleteAw, come on, they postponed the 2nd episode of Life on Mars at very short notice a few weeks ago, and all for some bloody footy.
ReplyDeleteSomeone at the Beeb doesn't want to upset Gordo.
I am not sure I subscribe fully to your theory that the BBC is wholly institutionally biased towards NuLab (or the leftish tendency in general) but, hey what do I know?
ReplyDeleteHowever, this Panorama "example" is interesting: why would they schedule this programme which (from the trailers) appears to criticise Government policies on health - a key hot, local potato - on this particular evening?
It maybe they assume that NuLab is going to get slaughtered anyway so David Dimbleby will be able to goad Ministers during the late night/early morning with questions about the way they've been running the NHS causing their defeat. Perhaps I am just being naive.
One off Panorama specials have been shown many a time in Thursdays in recent years
ReplyDeleteTo add, they have been shown on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well but The Apprentice is shown on Wednesdays with the follow up programme straight after on BBC 2 and Crimewatch is on Tuesday at 9pm.
ReplyDeleteDr Who is shown at random times around 7pm on a saturday... oh sorry i thought we were compiling a tv guide for the BBC.
ReplyDeleteWhat a ridiculous argument. If they didn't want to attract attention to a programme that embarrasses Labour they could, er, NOT SHOW IT.
ReplyDeleteJudging by the articles on the news this morning the Panorama this evening is about Bob Woolmer. Furthermore looking at the BBC website previous Panoramas have been on Mondays.
ReplyDeleteThey could perhaps do a programme on crap research done by bloggers
Whilst a) would normally be the right answer, I wonder if they just not being run out of town (ie Monday evenings) by Channel 4's excellent Dispatches program.
ReplyDeleteThere have been some great Dispatches programs of late - I can think of only one Panorama worth the time spent watching it (even as a dumbed down half an hour).
OK AndyW - if they stay on Mondays - I will keep watching Dispatches.
ReplyDeleteYou want to waste your time on future Labour party politicians and party workers playing at broadcasting then its up to you.
Ridiculous theory Mr Dale. Get your coat. Apart from anything else they will be running the cherry picked trailers of badness in the run up to voting day. And btw in England this is voting for a local council and not for those who are struggling with a midwifery service which has been in "crisis" under successive governments, or a junior doctor training allocation which has been haphazard since time. The longer a govt is in office and the more improvements they have made the more and more they are judged on the nuances and smallest details which are naturally the hardest to put right.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway if Panorama were kowtowing they'd have shown this - and its trailers - well away from election day, not on it.
This blog is getting more and more unreliable.
because theyve got the bob woolmer story investigation on tonight.
ReplyDeleteobvious really.
Where BBC bias is suspected, always assume the worst. You will generally be correct.
ReplyDeleteRemember Johnson Beharry and the programme about his VC? Binned as "too supportive of the campaign in Iraq." Ugh!
The BBC has an inflated budget and an inflated idea of its own importance, which is fuelled by the government's obsession with news management.
Panorama: Murder at the World Cup will be broadcast on BBC1 at 20:30 BST, Monday.
ReplyDeletePanorama
Mon 30 Apr, 8:30 pm - 9:00 pm 30mins
Murder at the World Cup: A report into the death of Pakistan's coach and former English Test cricketer Bob Woolmer in March 2007, with access to the police officer leading the investigation. [S]
Subtitles Stereo Widescreen
Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/panorama
TRANSMISSION INFORMATION
Panorama is on Mondays at 20:30 BST on BBC One and repeated on BBC News 24 Mondays at 00:30 BST and Tuesdays at 03:30 BST.
So hang on. The BBC broadcasts an hour long documentary that highlights some pretty serious failings of Labour government policy. At prime time. On polling day. And you accuse the BBC of being biased?
ReplyDeleteAs Littlejohn would put it: You couldn't make it up!
I can't get excited about Panorama to be honest. Once the key political programme on the BBC, now it is reduced to covering 'scandals' like some dodgy phone voting scam. Not really up there with 'Death on the Rock' from World in Action or the John Ware investigation into who was behind the Omagh bombings..
ReplyDelete'So hang on. The BBC broadcasts an hour long documentary that highlights some pretty serious failings of Labour government policy. At prime time. On polling day. And you accuse the BBC of being biased?
ReplyDeleteAs Littlejohn would put it: You couldn't make it up'
Yeah, becuase I'm sure thousands of people will flock to the polls at 9pm after the show to get in their protest.....
The BBC has shown itself to be frightened of Labour as it never was of the Tories. I suppose its because its full of labour supporters
ReplyDeleteAround here I think it is extraordinarily unlikely that most people will have voted by 8pm on Thursday...
ReplyDeleteGet your coat Iain...you've pulled.
ReplyDeleteI should imagine that if they showed it before the polls closed, they'd have to obey all the rules about political balance etc.
ReplyDeleteFairly impossible in a programme such as this, which is all about Labour's failure on health and nothing about the other parties...
I suppose if Levy was arrested tomorrow they'd have to do an accompanying retrospective piece on Lord Archer's fall from grace...
Well, I'm gonna be voting at about 9.30 on Thursday, and will complain bitterly to Sir Michael Lyons if I feel unfairly coerced by Panorama.
ReplyDeletePanorama is also on from 7-8 tonight, and then again at 8.30pm (the first programme being a special on Operation Crevice, now that the jury's returned its verdict)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.drrant.net/2007/03/dropping-baby-declining-obstetric-care.html
ReplyDeleteWe've been covering this story for a while, along with Dr Crippen. Glad BBC have caught up with it.
Undercover midwives could put the flesh and bones on the Independent on Sunday's original story.