“British politicians know perfectly well why the BBC avoids the word ‘terrorist’, and over the years plenty of them have privately agreed with it. Calling someone a terrorist means you’re taking sides and ceasing to treat the situation with due impartiality. The BBC’s job is to place the facts before its audience and let them decide what they think, honestly and without ranting. …There’s always someone who would like us to rant. Sorry, it’s not what we do.”

John Simpson

World Affairs Editor, BBC News

Good morning, it’s Monday 16th October.

The week ahead…

Monday: Parliament returns from conference recess.

Tuesday: Chinese President Xi Jinping will host representatives from over 130 nations for a two-day summit in Beijing.

Wednesday: UK House Price Index and private housing rental prices.

Thursday: Two more by-elections (Dorries and Pincher).

Asylum seekers set to return to the Bibby Stockholm.

RIBA Stirling Prize Awards.

Friday: Joe Biden hosts US-EU summit.

One year since resignation of Liz Truss.

Saturday: Cricket World Cup: England v South Africa.

“The biggest challenge of reporting on this conflict is just how emotive it is. Every word you say is being scrutinised so closely and is likely to be contested by one side or the other – or both – and that definitely adds to the pressure.”

Secunder Kermani 

Channel 4 news 

“As a journalist trying to tread the line of the grey areas – which are incredibly dark right now – is very, very hard because whatever you write, someone disagrees with you and you can face a lot of criticism for the way things have been phrased or put out there and at the same time you need to pursue the story and the truth.”  

Bel Trew

The Independent 

Two quotes from a Media Show Special on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Some of the content will be a little dated by now, but it is still a good listen on almost impossibly difficult conditions from which to report.

LISTEN HERE

“Despite the current uncertainty, it is clear that Newsnight will continue into the future and I have no doubt it will thrive.”

Parting words from outgoing Newsnight editor Stewart Maclean to staff.

These are troubled times for the programme with reports managers are considering axing its team of correspondents and making the show more debate-led in its content.

Deadline has a good write-up – READ HERE

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

U is for the UK:

Or one of the four nations. Or the region loosely called the East of England. If your audience is primarily from the “home“ country always bear that in mind when you are taking about a story with an international reach. Can the UK learn from the recycling practices in India? Are there shared characteristics between rural deprivation in the southern USA and where your regional audience are watching you in Devon and Cornwall? This isn’t being parochial. It is about connecting and bringing a topic close to home.

Footnotes:

Southern Britain began a massive clear-up operation after the worst night of storms in living memory on this day in 1987.

Which gives us all an excuse to revisit this moment of TV history…

Highs today of 11 degrees in Lancaster and 12 in Aberdeen.

Finally the obligatory dog-pic photo. One has had a haircut, the other clearly needs one…

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

Good morning, it’s Monday 9th October.

The week ahead…

Labour Party Conference:

Reeves (Monday) and Starmer (Tuesday)

Monday: Nobel economics prize awarded

The Reckoning (Steve Coogan as Savile) starts on BBC1

Tuesday: IMF publishes World Economic Outlook

Wednesday: NASA press conference (Bennu asteroid)

Greta Thunberg on trial in Sweden over Malmo protest

Thursday: UK GDP monthly estimate

Friday: Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour film release

Saturday: Australia referendum on whether to change the constitution 

Sunday: Elections in Poland

Print journalists are attracted to beautiful, colourful, arresting language like moths to a flame.

Take this line last week from a tweet written by Zeke Hausfather at the Berkeley Earth climate data project on global temperature data:

“September was, in my professional opinion as a climate scientist, absolutely gobsmackingly bananas.”

It made headlines…

It made opening paragraphs…

…and featured in reports on BBC and Channel 4 (just the ones I saw).

I’m not being flippant about a story which is utterly terrifying. I’m using it to demonstrate a point. If you are talking to a print journalist, think about the quote you want to see attributed to you before the interview.

Spend time on the content, but also the language.

Invariably if a writer knows their article is going to be enriched with those words included, then in it goes…

Say what you like about Nicholas Witchell (and many do both inside and outside the corporation) but he’s been a BBC lifer for as long as I’ve been alive (47 glorious years) which is no mean feat. His retirement was announced last week with a BBC statement thanking him for “his remarkable service”, which is hard to argue with. 

Episode 1 of The Today Podcast we wrote about last week has been generally well-received, though James Marriott in The Times notes:

“The main challenge that The Today Podcast faces is the polarised modern broadcasting landscape. Shows like The News Agents thrive on feeding the partisan outrage of their liberal listeners. Bound by BBC impartiality guidelines Rajan and Robinson are confined to analysis, not opinion. Whether this will be enough for audiences accustomed to hearing their opinions repeated back to them remains to be seen.”

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

T is for Talent:

…the ironic label underpaid producers give the stars for whom they write questions and briefs. Stars have egos and sometimes therefore feel it’s beneath them to stick to what their staff have come up with on your topic. This doesn’t make off air briefings redundant – far from it – but it does mean you should always be ready for the curved ball The Talent throws into the mix.

Pause – so you have a moment to regroup.

Footnotes:

The first Sumo wrestling tournament ever to be staged outside Japan in the sport’s 1500 year history was held in the Royal Albert Hall on this day in 1991.

Highs today of 19 degrees in Swansea and 18 in Newcastle.

And we like to keep politics out of the Monday Media Briefing – you get enough of that elsewhere. But if anyone can tell us what on earth the Conservatives are on about, feel free to enlighten us…

Finally the obligatory dog-pic photo, from this very day in 2012:

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

“A weak, feeble, gutless, pathetic, spineless, leaderless, lazy, stupid, pointless institution who, by their inactivity, are doing huge damage to British broadcasting, and to any remaining unity and harmony in this country.”

Michael Crick (ex Newsnight/Channel 4) gives both barrels to Ofcom as pressure grows on the regulator to sharpen its teeth & bring GB News into line.

READ MORE

Good morning, it’s Monday 2nd October.

The week ahead…

Conservative Party Conference:

Chancellor (Mon), Home Secretary (Tues), PM (Wed) 

Nobel Prizes: Physics (Tues), Literature (Thurs) Peace (Fri) 

Monday: NHS junior doctors and consultants begin three-day joint strike

Wednesday: Wednesday: Google launches new Pixel phone

Thursday: Rutherglen and Hamilton-West by-election 

Cricket World Cup begins

Saturday: 15 years ago: RBS collapsed

The Today programme launches a weekly podcast. (What took them so long?) 

BBC blurb says hosts Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson will “give their take on the biggest stories and a behind-the-scenes insight into how the programme is made.”

Can a saturated market stomach yet another podcast hosted by two media-establishment-men of a certain age?

As Times Radio’s Aasmah Mir points out:

“If you’re starting a news/politics podcast and hiring all male hosts in 2023, have a wee word with yourself.” 

The Today podcast launches on Thursday.

READ MORE

In a similar vein, following last week’s Murdoch coverage in the Briefing, a reader emailed to ask…

“Were you aware that all your Rupert Murdoch quotes were white men of a certain age and genre (media/politicos)? Was that the point?”

I wish I could say it was the point. (And I suppose in a way it is). But ultimately it was a poorly chosen set of quotes. Thanks for pulling us up on it.

Another reader writes:

“I listened with interest to the PMs interview on HS2 and it sounded like he had taken his media training a bit too far. Did a press officer really say “if she asks about trains, and levelling up, just keeping bringing it back to potholes”.

It certainly sounds it.

LISTEN HERE 

We’ll return to Sunak’s interviewing style next month.

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

S is for Slick:

Don’t be – even if your presenter is a bit of a smoothie. Under pressure, we can sometimes adopt the characteristics of the person with whom we’re trying to engage. It’s that chameleon quality that can lead us into trouble. Let’s face it, smoothness is often part of a veneer that can easily segue into phoney. Instead allow the natural bumps of your character to show. A deliberateness if you tend to ponder – an excitement if you’re prone to enthusiasm. Audiences warm to the real. That’s especially important with your language. Remember report speak can sound mellifluous but it’s often a bit of a switch off – and can mean very little.

And Wolf Blitzer and CNN win big at the News and Documentary Emmys…

READ MORE

Footnotes:

Neil Kinnock became the new leader of the Labour party, with Roy Hattersley joining him as deputy on this day in 1983.

Highs of degrees in 17 today in Brighton and 21 in the Hague.

And lovely timing from Mail Online, not that they’ll care that much I suspect…

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

Good morning, it’s Monday 25th September.

The week ahead…

Monday: UCU university staff begin five-day strike action.

Tuesday: The International Energy Agency’s updated roadmap on Net Zero emissions is published. 

Ed Davey addresses Lib Dems conference.

Wednesday: The parents of a six-month-old girl take their battle to extend her life to the High Court. 

Second Republican primary debate.

Thursday: First US House committee hearing in Biden impeachment inquiry.

Friday: Ryder Cup begins.

Saturday: ASLEF train drivers strike.  

“For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. But the time is right for me to take on different roles.”

Rupert Murdoch, announcing he is stepping down as chairman of News Corp.

“Murdoch dragged journalism and politics into the gutter where truth and basic journalistic standards were rendered irrelevant. He debased the quality of political discourse in this country.”

John McDonnell

“Rupert Murdoch is the most talented and influential world business figure Australia has produced.”

John Howard

“There was a fairly strong maxim of government which was ‘don’t upset Rupert’. Upsetting Rupert was definitely a no-go area.” 

Lord Mandelson

“Rupert Murdoch has been a bold, brilliant, visionary leader whose audacity & tenacity built a magnificently successful global media empire.”

Piers Morgan

“Rupert Murdoch, who reportedly dislikes Britain and despises America, has transformed both countries- not for the better.”

John Simpson

Your take on Murdoch’s legacy?

We’d love to include some quotes from readers in next week’s newsletter.

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

R is for Regular:

The regular army – the words don’t carry the same brio as special forces do they? Regular is average, medium. Middle of the road can be a little dull. We emphatically don’t want you to overdramatise in a bid to appear a little different. But when talking about the familiar do try and think of interesting trends or what the exceptions to the familiar rule tell us. Shed light on less unremarked aspects to bring a certain newness to the subject.

On the future of BBC Local Radio…

“Their strategy is naive, their implementation egregiously bad. This most distinctive of services, filling a gap where commercial radio struggles to afford to exist – and one which is most popular outside London – is to be sacrificed.”

Respected radio lifer David Lloyd doesn’t hold back in his savage criticism of BBC Management. It’s hard to argue with much of what he says…

READ MORE

Much love directed from you to Melvyn Bragg after we reported on In Our Time reaching a mighty 1,000 episodes.

Here is he reflecting on that run with Mishal Husain on Today… 

LISTEN HERE

Footnotes:

Keri, who cheerfully proofs this newsletter every weekend was born on this day 50 years ago. (Happy birthday Keri!)

Highs of degrees in 17 today in Aberdeen and 19 degrees in Brighton.

And confusion at BBC News Online…

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