Media Training Update w/c 18th September

As Quentin Letts returns to the Mail following a short-lived stay at News International, this assessment from The Times’ World Affairs Editor…

Good morning, it’s Monday 18th September.

The week ahead…

Tuesday: Court of Session: Scottish government makes its case against the Government’s decision to block Holyrood’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

The final report in the Brook House Immigration Removal Centre inquiry is published.

UN General Assembly.

Wednesday: Junior doctors and consultants hold an historic joint strike. 

King Charles and Queen Camilla begin a three-day State Visit to France.

Thursday: Watch for a possible Bank Of England interest rate rise.

British Social Attitudes Survey.

Friday:  England v Scotland in Women’s Nations League.

Sunday:  NASA mission returns asteroid sample collection to Earth.

Worth picking out a few quotes from John Ryley’s Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture. The well-liked former boss of Sky News criticised the lack of media scrutiny over the royal family, and gave this insight into TV coverage of King Charles’s coronation: 

“The royal spin doctors had the opportunity to censor any pictures from the coronation before they could be replayed on the day … And the royal spin doctors dictated which clips of the footage could be shown in future broadcasts in what they called with an Orwellian phrase: ‘a perpetuity edit’.”

Apparently WhatsApp group would allow royal courtiers to tell senior editors at the BBC, ITN, and Sky News in real time if the royal family wanted specific pieces of footage removed from circulation. 

Broadcasters are now, he said, “too supine … too incurious … too compliant…Topics such as why King Charles didn’t pay any inheritance tax on the fortune he inherited from his mother or the fact the Duchy of Cornwall doesn’t pay capital gains tax should be examined properly. The reporting needs to be far more rigorous.”

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“He delights in scheduling disparate subjects on consecutive weeks. You can almost hear the glee in his voice when at the end of an episode on the siege of Paris, he announces: “Next week, we’ll be discussing solar wind.”

An extraordinary run. In Our Time reaches 1,000 episodes this week. 

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It’s reported Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund tycoon and investor in GB News has hired an investment bank to advise him on a bid for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph ahead of a looming auction of the titles that could fetch in the region of £600m.

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Long-time BBC correspondent Chris Morris becomes the new CEO of Full Fact

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On the Inside Edge website – Tony’s A-Z of media training: 

Q is for Quest:

Audiences can enjoy detective work as long as the investigation has distinctiveness and some nifty twists and turns. Uncovering a forgotten manuscript, gleaning a design from a formation of birds both offer fascinating colour. Avoid posing questions though. Both presenters and the people watching are looking for answers or at the very least interesting observations on the direction of travel.

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Footnotes:

Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix died after collapsing at a party in London on this day in 1970.

Highs of 15 degrees in today in Edinburgh and 18 degrees in Northampton.

Finally the obligatory dog-pic photo….

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done. We’re @insideedgemedia or just reply to this email. 

Have a brilliant week.

All at Inside Edge