Sunday, 21 October 2018

Moving on


Here are some statistics that I think are very revealing, which I've found courtesy of the search function on TV Eyes

The question: Since the break of day yesterday (Saturday) morning, starting at 6 o'clock, how many times has the word 'Huddersfield' been mentioned respectively on the BBC News Channel and the Sky News Channel in connection to predominantly Muslim grooming gangs? 

(All results mentioning Huddersfield Football Club are ignored).

Well, the results for the BBC News Channel are just 1 mention - at 7:13 am on Saturday morning, and nothing since. 

And the results for Sky News are 33 mentions, all across Saturday and continuing today. 

So the obvious conclusion here is that one UK broadcaster's rolling news channel - the BBC's - has dropped the story like a stone while the other - Sky - has continued to focus on it. 

(And digging into the TV Eyes results, that's exactly the case.)

There's no way that's not a very clear example of editorial decision making on the part of the two broadcasters. The BBC has evidently decided to very, very firmly - and quickly -  'move on'.