Never enough

There's a gentle grinding of teeth going on in BBC News. The BBC Trust appoints Edward Mortimer to review coverage of The Arab Spring, and Mr Mortimer, newspaper journalist, foreign affairs leader writer, historian, academic, commentator, campaigner, Middle East specialist, advisor to the UN, and CMG, broadly says it was good, but there wasn't enough of it.  Well I never....

And then, despite speaking to 46 people from the BBC side, he misses the point about two key elements that made the BBC's coverage better than others - video content found on the web, and Jeremy Bowen.

Was there enough coverage ? There was, and there still is. Edward Mortimer, however, clearly wants more on the main bulletins. Seduced by daft counting exercises at Loughborough University, he's discovered that BBC bulletins reported OTHER STORIES at key periods.

The counters also found that, in 74% of the occasions that videos found via the web were used, "there were no caveats about authenticity or representativeness".  That's because the BBC had a substantial team, working round the clock at the height of this story, checking that the pictures that made air were genuine and relevant. Where there was doubt, but a likelihood that the footage was "right" and an important part of the story, correspondents and reporters said so.

Mr Mortimer wants more context. This harks back to the Days of Damazer, when the 9 O'Clock News carried as few as five items of news, each accompanied by an Dexpo (a deep exposition of the underlying issues) or a Bexpo ( a brief, etc...).   The Loughborough research shows that the current 10 O'Clock News ran 99 items about the Arab Spring over the 44 days of output monitored. Viewers would have gone barmy if each had been followed by a Pesto-like flap doodle, along the lines "Whatever happens next, the Middle East will never/ will always be the same" (Strike out alternatives as applicable).

And Mr Mortimer is concerned that Jeremy Bowen, Middle East Editor, wasn't always available to provide such flap doodles; he was apparently out on the road experiencing some of the Arab Spring first hand. Wouldn't have happened on Mr Mortimer's watch as The Times' Foreign Specialist and Leader-Writer on Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Affairs (1973–85). Presumably all achieved from the comfort of Printing House Square.

Meanwhile, in a Mortimer world, every Middle East piece on BBC tv news will henceforward carry the addendum "and, of course, there's much more about that story - what they're thinking in Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa, plus the historical context, an overview of the impact on minorities and updates from Yemen and Jordan, generally quiet today, but still important to understanding the story, on the BBC News website".  Your blogger exits, screaming.