The Strange Case of the Missing Retweet

Tweet Queen, Samira Ahmed

I read a comment somewhere this morning saying "Newswatch is just a way for BBC News to just take the subtle piss out of any complainers". 

Unfair or not, cynical or not, Twitter was certainly full of people extracting the not-so-subtle urine out of the first featured complainer on this week's edition. 

Here's the section in question:

Samira Ahmed: First, it's not always what you see on the news which captures the attention of Newswatch viewers, but when you see it. On Wednesday evening, a football match was showing live on BBC One. If you're interested, an FA Cup third-round replay between Chelsea and Norwich City. Unfortunately, not everyone was interested and when the broadcast overran because of a late start to the game and they go into extra time and then a penalty shoot out, some of them were pretty angry, as the News at Ten became the News at 10:45pm. Here's Deborah Toulson:

Deborah: Last night, my husband and I got home after a long day at work and we do like to sit down and watch the Ten O'Clock News. But it turns out a football match was overrunning and the news had to be displaced by 45 minutes. I just don't think somebody's got their head screwed on. If the football match is that important, put it on a different channel. But I feel news comes before football. 

(A mild example of the Twitter response: "She’s got a whole bloody news channel to watch 24 hours a day! Why cut off sporting drama just because she isn’t a fan of the sport? Hate idiots like that.")

One of the politer Twitter comments telling Deborah where to go (to the BBC News Channel in this case!) was actually retweeted by Samira Ahmed - something that took me by surprise. 

I should have screengrabbed it because it's gone now. 

I believe that she subsequently un-retweeted it. 

If she changed her mind about the wisdom of retweeting a comment attacking a Newswatch viewer, I can easily guess why. It's not a good look for the presenter of such a 'watchdog' programme, is it? It speaks of disrespect for the complainer.