Channel 4: an apology

I have in the past few weeks been rather unkind about Channel 4. In particular, I suggested its recent Dispatches programme abandoned objective reporting in favour of sensationalist editorialising.

May I therefore take this opportunity to commend Channel 4’s decision not to pull tomorrow’s documentary, Diana: The Witnesses In The Tunnel.

I do not fully understand why Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, the private secretary of Princes William and Harry, has chosen to pick a fight, and to do it in such an emotionally-charged manner. His maudlin attempts to emotionally blackmail Channel 4 are simply tasteless:

Put simply, if it were your or my mother dying in that tunnel would we want the scene broadcast to the nation? Indeed, would the nation so want it?

Congratulations to C4’s director of television and content, Kevin Lygo, for standing by the programme and its makers, and for withstanding the typical inaccuracies and hypocrisy of the tabloid press. He points out that Mr Lowther-Pinkerton’s demands, if they set a precedent, would hamper serious documentaries investigating (for example) terrorist outrages, such as 9/11 or 7/7:

where there is the entirely responsible use of archive stills or footage depicting the immediate aftermath of the tragedy but where the dead or dying are, quite rightly and in accordance with regulatory provisions, not shown or identified. This is in our view a legitimate media analysis of events which, whilst inevitably personally distressing, concerns matters of immense public interest which have been (and are likely to continue to be) the subject of on-going and extensive world wide reports and comment over a significant period.

Mr Lygo then lists the various media outlets - including The Sun, The Sunday Times and BBC’s Panorama - which have previously reproduced the images which C4 intends to show without remonstrance from Mr Lowther-Pinkerton.

To answer Mr Lowther-Pinkerton’s question directly - no, if it were my dying mother I doubt I would want such scenes to be broadcast. Which is why the decision of whether they can be broadcast should not rest with me.

Don Foster: an apology

I have in the past been rather unkind about the Lib Dems’ culture spokesman, Don Foster. In particular, I suggested his knee-jerk opposition to super-casinos pandered to illiberal populism.

May I therefore take this opportunity to commend his support of Channel 4’s decision not to pull tomorrow’s documentary, Diana: The Witnesses In The Tunnel:

"While any programme about Diana’s death will cause distress to some members of the Royal Family, there is a legitimate public interest in the event, especially from a programme which provides new insights.

"Most commentators who have actually seen the programme praise it for the sensitive way it deals with a very delicate issue.

"Editorial decisions should not be made by ill-informed media hysteria but in the public interest and within existing broadcasting codes."

Channel 4 - what a load of rubbish

This isn’t yet another post about fortnightly alternate weekly waste collections. Honest. However, I accidentally found myself tonight watching Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, ‘Bin Wars’, in which Oxford heavily featured.

Regardless of your views - whether you think 160+ councils have taken leave of their senses, or that increased recycling rates are well worth the extra effort - what struck me most (on today of all days) was the programme’s polemical style. I recall Dispatches being a programme which took an objective and balanced view of the issues it put under the microscope, dealing with them sensibly and soberly.

Not any more. This was shoddy, shoddy journalism - so bad it could almost have been on ITV.

C4 will doubtless defend the show’s balance on the grounds that both sides had their say. True, kind of. But what you in fact got was a handful of residents opposed to the scheme, counterpointed with a Council official (or councillor) putting their perspective.

The C4 agenda was clear: this was a programme about politicians versus the people.

And yet - as the local newspaper, the Oxford Mail, has discovered - knock on people’s doors in this city and the vast majority of residents are quite content with our 'recycling revolution'. But was their view represented by C4? No.

I’m very happy to go round my Headington ward with a Dispatches film crew and talk directly to my residents about the scheme, and let C4 hear it for themselves. But, then, as evidenced by Ofcom today, could I really trust C4 to edit the programme properly?

This once-proud not-for-profit's factual programming is rapidly becoming The Independent of television - fun to flick through, but would you really trust it to present the facts, rather than filter them?

Much more of this, and they’ll have me thinking the BBC poll tax licence fee is a good idea.

The final Countdown

I guess it's possible I mis-heard... But is it true that Desert Orchid has just been named the new host of Channel 4's Countdown?

(Could have been more implausible, I s'pose.)