IF you ever have the misfortune to be watching BBC's Breakfast on a Saturday morning (BBC1, BBC News Channel) at 7.45am then you'll be able to witness one of the most pointless features ever.
Called Newswatch, it's basically a Points of View for BBC News, presented by some chap called Raymond Snoddy, a self-proclaimed media pundit. In it, he bascially serves up the complaints of BBC News viewers to someone senior from the BBC, who generally rebuffs them, points out that they are there to report news, and that not everyone will always be happy with what they broadcast.
Unlike Points of View, there's no humour to be had at some of the things which prompt viewers to write in. Newswatch takes itself far to seriously.
I suspect it's supposed to make viewers think that their views are listened to. The fact that very rarely does the BBC agree with viewers is neither here nor there, it would seem. Hell, what would the viewers know, after all?
The reason I witter on about this mind-numbingly pointless exercise in viewer patronisation is that the BBC News Channel is currently promoting this ridiculous programme throughout the day, yet it still manages to miss the mark when dealing with a big issue.
This weekend's chosen topic: Robert Peston's report on the banking crisis. The general gist of the conversation was that viewers weren't happy that Peston was reporting details which were wiping billions off shares as a result. The one thing neither Snoddy, nor the BBC manager lined up to bat away Snoddy's amusingly pointless questions, seemed to address was this: It's matters not the impact of the story, as long as the story is right.
Was Peston guilty of damaging the market? No, the blame there lies with those who filled their boots in the good times and therefore left the cupboard bare for the bleaker times. As the chap from BBC News said, he broke news stories which were followed up the world over, which is something the BBC wasn't doing while broadcastings NewsWatch.
Robert Peston made have the sort of rising and falling voice that sounds like the flush of a Virgin Pendolino toilet, but you can't line him up for a flogging just for breaking a news story which had an impact. That issue could have been dealt with within 15 seconds of the start of NewsWatch, but instead it filled the entire programme (with just a bit left over to look at the new look Business Lunch programme, which people didn't like because it featured someone's grandma).
And here's the best bit, poor old Peston is due a grilling from Snoddy next week.
If the BBC is truly commited to rooting out the faults of its news operation, how about posing this question on air: What is the point of Mihir Bose?
The BBC's sports editor, who appears not to understand the point of being on television is to engage with your audience, appears to have a very similar job to Robert Peston. He is an editor, and therefore commentates on big issues in his area, sport, and blogs about it.
The only thing is, whereas Robert Peston gets things right in his blog, and then gets criticised for it, Mihir Bose gets something wrong on his blog, and no-one says anything about it at all.
Now I know sports reporting is often about speculation and rumours, but hell, if you're the BBC Sports editor, you have to accept that your words carry a bit of weight with them.
So imagine the general excitement when a story broke on Friday, from Bose, that Everton chairman Bill Kenwright was jetting abroad to sell the club. Nothing new in the fact Kenwright wants to sell the club, but the line about the going abroad bit was news-worthy. So newsworthy in fact that Bose was on Five Live before you can say "rolling news: never wrong for long" explaining what was going on. The fact his sentences are so long and rambling that you've forgotten the start by the time he gets to the end isn't a great help on radio, either.
According to Bose, the sale wasn't going to be to an Indian billionaire who had been linked to the club. In fact, not to any Indian at all. Bose was right on both fronts, because there wasn't any sale going through at all. Why? Because the Everton chairman Bill Kenwright was actually in London casting for a new show.
This rather crucial fact was confirmed by the Liverpool newspapers within 30 minutes of Mihir Bose blogging about Everton's pending sale. Now, when newspapers get things wrong, they tend to publish a correction. No Mihir Bose. It's now Sunday evening, and his blog is still there. You can read it here.
The BBC, which sees fit to employ Raymond Snoddy to ask silly questions to BBC executives who I suspect have better things to do with their time, hasn't found the time to remove the post, or adapt it. In fact, it has fallen to a commenter, (number 15), to report what the club said about it.
Perhaps if Raymond Snoddy wants his 15 minutes of weekly fame (geddit?) to be worth something, perhaps he could bring in Mihir Bose to explain where his facts came from, why he didn't correct the facts and what research he does before going on air to say one of his favourite catchphrases: "I can reveal", "I can understand," and "I have learnt."
And then maybe, just maybe, Robert Peston can be allowed to get on with his job. Or find time to visit the voice coach. And as for me, next Saturday, I'm have a lie-in.
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