HOW NEWSPAPERS SET THE AGENDA FOR TELEVISION
There is nothing surprising about the BBC’s economics editor Robert Peston saying that the BBC is “completely obsessed” by the agenda set by newspapers.
From my experience some senior editorial figures did not believe a story was a story unless it had been in the papers first.
What is surprising is the papers Peston said most influence BBC programme editors – namely the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph.
I have worked in newsrooms where reading the Telegraph marked you down as a card-carrying member of the Conservatives and to be seen with a copy of the Daily Mail meant you would be eating lunch on your own.
Times must have changed. In my day everybody read The Guardian – but that might have been copies of Monday’s paper doing the rounds in the days when it was the only place to look for jobs.
When I worked for GMTV The Sun was, of course, the main paper of influence for the unashamedly tabloid TV programme.
It had a very clear test for a story: is it relevant for mums at home with kids? Not a particularly sophisticated theory, but it seemed to work.
How Good Morning Britain could do with such clarity! Or is it too late?