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UK - ITV News Item re: iPhone Launch

M

Monty Pavement

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 8, 2006
137
53
Scotland
Did anyone see the piece on the iPhone launch that was on the main ITV news in the UK at 7? One of the shoddiest bits of journalism I've ever seen!

Putting aside my Apple fanboy tendencies, it was a total non-story - and attempt to spoil the launch.

The trail for the piece was "What Apple Didn't Want You To Know As it Launched it's new iPhone" - along with close up shots of Security Guards' backs at the door of the Apple Store.

Turns out the 'bones' of the piece was that Apple wouldn't let two unlockers into the Store to unlock the phone in the store! Shocking! I'll ditch all my Apple gear immediately. Hardly the major con that ITV were suggesting. Of course they pulled out the usual cost of phone and contract totalling £900 - as if Apple were the only company using contract phones.

They then showed footage of an Apple PA stopping an interview with Phil Schiller when the journalist started asking him about the unlockers. The briefness of the clip suggested that the Apple PA said nothing controversial, otherwise they would have shown it.

Classic example of attempting to shoe horn the facts into a story to make it a negative piece.
 
Now I'm not suggesting that ITV are anti-Mac, but ...

if you go to www.itv.com/news, you are told that their video player doesn't support OSX!!

Of course, the BBC's player isn't OSX compatible either, but the above is ironic in the circumstances.
 
ITV has, and always will be, the chav tabloid ill-informed face of the british media. It is low rent reactionary bollocks. Always has been. It caters for the Daily Mail reading scaremongers. So this report is no surprise.

The phrase "Sloppy Journalism" is now somewhat of a tautology.

d
 
It is incredibly annoying how people keep quoting the phone + contract price. Nobody ever does that for any other phone.
 
Project said:
It is incredibly annoying how people keep quoting the phone + contract price. Nobody ever does that for any other phone.
Click to expand...

True, but then most other phones don't have hundreds of people queueing to buy them on launch :D

Got my iPhone yesterday, loving it!

DrCamel
 
chanell 4 discribed the people who were queing as 'uber geeks' - i wonder what they call unlockers?!
 
The ITV piece was largely a puff for one of the UK online unlocking vendors - shots of their office, with large posters naming the website in the background, and trying to get them into the Apple Store to unlock on the premises.

They were the main beneficiaries of the piece, at the cost of Apple.
 
Fair do's, but although I wouldn't go so far as the critical poster, it is still, by nature, more populist than, say, the BBC, being a commercial station and all.

And pieces like the one on the iPhone aren't adverts for fair, balanced reporting!

Although I will ruin my arguments by saying the female newsreader on the 7pm show is VERY attractive!
 
Monty Pavement said:
Fair do's, but although I wouldn't go so far as the critical poster, it is still, by nature, more populist than, say, the BBC, being a commercial station and all.

And pieces like the one on the iPhone aren't adverts for fair, balanced reporting!

Although I will ruin my arguments by saying the female newsreader on the 7pm show is VERY attractive!
Click to expand...

They're appealing to a different demographic than the BBC, certainly - but from my experience editorial decisions are in no way shaped by the commercial nature of the channel - news output is obviously part of their licence, and I dare say content is more down to the choice of the individual producers than anything more. I got the ITN prospects emailed to me (as I do every day) yesterday and it was clear they were heading for the 'find something negative' route from the early brief. In news it's extremely easy to find something positive to say, it's exactly what press releases and press offices are designed for - what's more challenging is to expose things people might not have known and present new information.

Having said this I also don't agree with what they said about the iPhone, but in my view that's just the way that normal journalists deal with technology stories. One day it'll be me doing that, and I hope to change things slightly!
 
Leemo said:
They're appealing to a different demographic than the BBC, certainly - but from my experience editorial decisions are in no way shaped by the commercial nature of the channel - news output is obviously part of their licence, and I dare say content is more down to the choice of the individual producers than anything more. I got the ITN prospects emailed to me (as I do every day) yesterday and it was clear they were heading for the 'find something negative' route from the early brief. In news it's extremely easy to find something positive to say, it's exactly what press releases and press offices are designed for - what's more challenging is to expose things people might not have known and present new information.

Having said this I also don't agree with what they said about the iPhone, but in my view that's just the way that normal journalists deal with technology stories. One day it'll be me doing that, and I hope to change things slightly!
Click to expand...

Respect your views, and am glad you agree that the iPhone piece wasn't the most balanced piece - ultimately I'm glad to live somewhere where we can quibble over journalistic points of view - at least we have a free press to offer opposing views. Many places aren't so lucky.

Also, given the current cuts and changes the BBC is going through, the differences between the news gathering agencies may not be so distinct in the near future ...
 
Leemo said:
National news is ITN, regional is through ITV.

Working for ITV News in the East Midlands I have to disagree with many of the comments about it being the 'chav tabloid ill-informed face of the british media' as I actually work with some incredibly talented and intelligent people.
Click to expand...

thanks for that.

A very biased article did they ask apple why they don't let people hack the phone...
and we did not hear what the question was the pr person was blocking..?

nice advert for the hackers thought

hmmmm and is it just a coincidence that b4 the article on line there is an advert for walkman and a banner underneath??
 
I've just had another look and it's vodafone advertising google maps on it's walkman phone.
I'm sure being able to offer advertising space to regular ad space buyers around a negative artical about the newest and probably biggest rival at the moment has nothing to do with how a comercial news network slants it's editorial content?:rolleyes::rolleyes::eek:
 
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