Unbelievable! BBC Television Cuts Off Terrestrial Coverage Of Blair’s Historic Last Day In Parliament For A Drama Series Promo And Wimbledon

Parliament had the sauce to run over the usual 30 minutes allotted for Prime Minister’s Question Time. So at 1234 local – four minutes after the schedule and with Blair still speaking up comes program presenter Andrew Neal to say basically “That’s All Folks” and off to Wimbledon they went, but not before a couple of minutes of promos for upcoming series and the like.

And what did the BBC terrestrial television miss. Only Blair making his final goodbye comments as he tried very hard to retain his composure, the Labor benches then rising to applaud him and then, in something that has never happened before in Parliament, the Opposition benches rising also for a two minute standing ovation as Blair walked out of the chamber. This was no cool reserved British “Hear, Hear” that is normally yelled out when Parliamentarians agree with something, this was politicians, friends and foes, from all walks of life, giving him a final “thanks” on behalf of their constituents. It’s just never been done before.

But terrestrial BBC viewers in the UK didn’t get to see that. They got to see instead promos for the “Rome” drama series.

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Via the magic of cable, ftm was watching BBC2 in Geneva, Switzerland, our home base. When Andrew Neal said the network was cutting away we didn’t believe our ears or our eyes. But again with the magic of cable, there were other options available and we switched immediately to Sky News that continued its coverage. Indeed we stayed with Sky throughout the afternoon – their coverage, without commercial interruption, was first-class all the way through to Gordon Brown returning from Buckingham Palace and making his first speech as Prime Minister in front of 10 Downing Street.

Putting together the pieces at the BBC, supposedly what happened was that BBC1 was to begin a special program at 12:35 covering Blair going to Buckingham Palace -- but that had been under the assumption Parliament was going to wrap up at 1230 and instead it ran a good six minutes over. So the powers that be decided BBC2 coverage should end at 1234 to permit a smooth handover to BBC1 even though Blair was still talking. Big mistake. It is said the BBC2 people tried to get the folks who actually decide what goes out on each channel not to cut off the BBC2 coverage but for reasons best known to themselves those people weren’t having any changes. According to UK media they were acting on the decision of Peter Horrocks, the BBC head of news.

Neal, the BBC2 presenter who has a long resume of journalistic accomplishments including being editor of the Sunday Times, said afterwards, “I think it’s disappointing that the final historic remarks of the Prime Minister and his historic standing ovation were not broadcast live on terrestrial television (it was on BBC News 24 and BBC Parliament but their audiences are tiny). I was very disappointed. I sympathize with viewers who feel this was a wrong decision.”

And already the bloggers are having a field day. Wrote one, “Absolutely disgraceful that the Daily Politics today was cut off sharp, thus missing the last two or three minutes of Blair's last session of Prime Minister's Questions (PMQ). History, happening live before our eyes, cut-off for the sake of five minutes worth of Wimbledon coverage. I hope someone at the BBC will have an imprint of Andrew Neil's brogues on their posterior afore long! Just to add insult to injury, having cut off PMQs, the BBC still had the temerity to show its usual package of tedious self-advertising in the gap between programs - a trailer for 'Rome', a trailer for 'Jekyll', a BBC2 ident, and then on to Wimbledon, with a lengthy preamble from Sue Barker and then a non-entity tennis match.”

Continuing with the same theme another wrote, “Such is the self-harm that the BBC has done with its incompetence. But the episode does point to the BBC being too large, too unwieldy, too driven by factions and fiefdoms such as daytime, sport, and TV News to do its job properly on very important occasions. It is a great shame.”

No doubt the BBC will come up with its explanations that Parliament ran over-time and that blew away their smooth coverage plans -- Wimbledon had to be covered and all the like, and the BBC will probably issue some sort of apology if viewers were upset, but the real question is given that Parliament did run overtime was there no one in the BBC with authority who recognized that you don’t cut off history in the making? Even BBC News24, its 24-hour news digital platform, cutaway in the midst of the standing ovation – they really had something more important to switch to?

Apologies or no apologies, excuses or no excuses, one expects far more from a public broadcaster that boasts it is the best in the world at what it does. This time they let their viewers down badly and they owe it to their public to put in place procedures to ensure something like that never happens again.

Blair’s camp has not said what they think about the debacle but Blair did make very clear a couple of weeks back what he thinks about the media in general. In a speech that garnered global attention he admonished, "The fear of missing out means that today's media, more than ever before, hunts in a pack. In these modes it is like a feral (wild) beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits."

Journalists are "increasingly and to a dangerous degree ... driven by 'impact', and this is driving down standards and doing a disservice to the public. The damage saps the country's confidence and self-belief ... it reduces our capacity to take the right decisions," he said.

And while he was at it he accused the media of sensationalism, breeding cynicism and attacking public figures for no good reason. "Scandal or controversy beats ordinary reporting hands down ... Attacking motive is far more potent than attacking judgment. It is not enough for someone to make an error; it has to be venal, conspiratorial..."

Wife Cherie made it clear as she left 10 Downing Street for the last time what she thought of the “feral beast” that has made her life miserable on more than one occasion. "Goodbye. I don't think we'll miss you," she told reporters as she got into the car.

Blair, of course, is not gone from the public scene. He has accepted being the envoy for the Quartet (UN, US, Europe and Russia) in trying to bring peace to the Middle East. He’ll want to cultivate positive media relationships.

Who knows, if he actually does pull Middle East peace out of the hat maybe, just maybe, the BBC might cover that event in full! Assuming, of course, Mr. Blair ensures his announcement doesn’t conflict with any tennis or golf scheduling.

And, Yes, The BBC Has Apologized, But Given Why It Happened, Can It Happen Again? - June 29, 2007

The fallout at the BBC continues over the shambles of its coverage of Tony Blair’s last appearance in Parliament. BBC2 television cutaway its coverage just as Blair was giving his last “hurrah” and thus terrestrial viewers missed his “I have never been a man of the House,” but “from first to last I have never stopped fearing it…and in that fear the respect is contained.” He also defended politics as a place “where people stand tall… where people pursue noble causes.” and at the end as tried so hard to keep his composure he uttered, “That’s all. The end.” The House then stood as one in giving him a historic two-minute standing ovation, something not afforded a British Prime Minister since 1918 when Lloyd George announced the end of World War I.

"Sometimes bad mistakes happen on the worst possible day. And that's exactly what happened this afternoon,” apologized Helen Boarden, the BBC’s director of news.

"I saw it myself: I was watching coverage of the absolutely riveting final Prime Minister Question Time (PMQs)... with Tony Blair on The Daily Politics when it suddenly cut away in the middle of his valedictory statement to a couple of trails and the tennis.

"As a consequence, we only learned later that we had missed Mr. Blair talking about his fear of the House of Commons, and a unique moment when both sides of the House gave him a standing ovation. A lot of you were taken aback and upset by the switch - and certainly Andrew Neil and the production team were deeply disappointed not to share this with you after the care and passion they put into the program on such a special day.

"After looking into this, I can at least reassure you that this was cock up rather than conspiracy. A wrong scheduling decision was taken for which the BBC can only apologize. Believe me, no one involved would have wanted you to miss any part of this important event. Thankfully, News 24 was also covering PMQs live so we hope viewers were able to switch there."

British media continue to put the blame on Peter Horrocks, the head of television news. The Independent quoted one BBC source saying, “Instructions were: 'Cut away now, Horrocks has told us to be off air by 12.34. Cut away or we'll cut your feed.' He wanted us off air before his Blair special started on BBC1 but he sent out a message that if you want to see live news, watch Sky."

The BBC apology was expected, but what the BBC needs to do now is to publish procedures to ensure the same cannot happen again.

Emails from ftm readers indicate they, too, cannot believe that this premier news organization could make such a mistake. One wrote, “I must say! I wasn’t aware of BBC’s editing before I read today’s story. I took it for granted BBC would cover this in full, when history is being made 5 meters away from the camera. BBC is no longer what it used to be.

“I still remember the coverage of Hong Kong being handed over to China in 1997, with Chris Patten folding the flag. Having seen this on screen, you’re left with the feeling of having witnessed a historical moment. Then you have a story to tell your children and grandchildren.

It’s a neat point – from clear across the globe the BBC can cover history correctly without “cock ups”, but on its own doorstep …

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