BBC’s abysmal business coverage
Tuesday saw one of the North West of England’s biggest news stories break. Two major, high profile employers had entered into merger talks that could result in the creation of a £10bn business headquartered in Greater Manchester.
Between them the Manchester based Co-operative Group and Rochdale’s United Co-operatives employ 86,500 people, many of them in England’s north west. And many north west Englanders shop with the Co-op, bank with the Co-op and much more.
There’s little doubt that this may be the biggest business news story to break in the region for some time and it has the potential to impact on the lives of a great many people. Yet there’s been nothing on North West Tonight or even the BBC Manchester homepage (which includes Rochdale).
For all its greatness the BBC is simply unable to cover business stories. Back in 2000 then Director General Greg Dyke admitted the BBC: ‘ignored or failed to understand the real business agenda’.
He promised a shake-up. Six years on it’s reported that the BBC is now on the verge of appointing a panel to get to grips with the problem.
(Postscript: It’s worth noting that the Manchester Evening News’ new business section has come into its own here, with a decent front page lead and additional background piece.)
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[...] been previously moved to note the BBC’s abysmal coverage of business there’s little surprise that the BBC Trust has found the corporation’s coverage to be [...]
BBC’s business coverage failing / June 8th, 2007, 7:01 pm / #
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