Sky News: Tabloid Tripe

death1234567

Is it just me or did Sky News use to be good. Back in the day I thought it actually served a function but over the last year or two it has just become inane babble 24/7.

The amount of non-news stories e.g Entertainment rubbish, the continuous over hyping of everything and the constant breaking news bar with news that's not breaking news at all.

Is it just me or is it totally unwatchable?

Mr E

I agree... the overuse of the "Breaking News" bar has desensitised me to real (important) breaking news.

"Breaking News - Gordon Brown had Brown Bread and eggs for breakfast"

Basq

Mr E wrote: »

"Breaking News - Gordon Brown had Brown Bread and eggs for breakfast"

Tell me more...!

:eek:

WindSock

His eggs have exploded in the microwave and police have several Muslim suspects for the incident.

gimmick

Its just gone the same way as Fox news. It was always going to happen really.

Its news for the unemployed and the illiterate.

Creature

WindSock wrote: »

His eggs have exploded in the microwave and police have several Muslim suspects for the incident.

ROFL

Yeah I agree with you death1234567, it's just a live action version of the Evening Herald or somesuch trash paper at this stage.

Latchy

Totally unwatchable.The newsreaders of today are the celebrities .The BBC gort rid of one good newsreader in Moira Stuart simply cuz she was seen as to old ,nothing to do with her newsreading skills which were exellent and strsight foreward to the point.

All the pretty young things 'eye candy ' have taken over

ejmaztec

I've never rated Sky News and can never understand why it gets the "News-channel of the year award" every year. The presenters aren't the most likeable people, with that nice Kay "slugger" Burley, Anna "I'm trying to make a name for myself" Botting and the one at the top of my list, Tim Marshall, the smug git. There's something about that guy that really gets on my wick.
"I know stuff and I'm doing you all a big favour by telling you some of it" - I think that's the kind of thing he'd say under his breath.

Arrrrrrggggghhhhh:mad:

Murdoch's got a lot to answer for.

Latchy

Can see them sitting in the sky news studio thinking ' look at us , the world hangs on our every word ' .

It's over a year since i watched a sky news report /item and in no hurry to listen to the same dribbling story over, and over, again every 15 minutes .

Honey-ec

They're appalling. Someone seriously needs to explain to them that all news is not necessarily newsworthy.

Sknews.com is even worse - news in pictures for people who can't actually be bothered to read.

Mossy Monk

I haven't watched Sky News in about 9 months and I am surviving just fine.

razorblunt

Never really watch Sky News, normally watch Sky Sports New but this summer has been hilarious watching them trying to fill the gap of no football and England not being in Euro 2008.

They've also had to backtrack on a lot of "news stories" this summer as well.

mike65

I get the feeling they don't have the money they once did. If so that is the same as every newsroom (newsnight is down to puting loose change in the meter)

Mike.

ejmaztec

I often wonder how they cram all of those people into that Sky satellite - must be like the Tardis.

Milktrolley

death1234567 wrote: »

Is it just me or did Sky News used to be good?

*sigh of nostalgia*

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was exceptionally good as well.

What gets on my tits is the way normal stories are given the whole amazing status. Consider today's headlines, Murat wins libel action and the wife of the canoeist who faked his death gives evidence in court. Perfectly acceptable stories until they're "glossed" with flashy graphics and given the overall Sky News treatment.

9/11 changed the whole news channel format. Consider the ticker - its pointless on a UK channel where so little happens they can justify having a primetime bulletin that lasts 15 minutes... every 15 goddamn minutes. And its even more pointless in an age with Sky News Active and the interweb. Charlie Brooker pointed out the 6W's (who, what, where etc) and the new 7th one - WOAH!! That takes precedence over everything nowadays. */rant*

Latchy

The last two sky news items of intrest to me were bushs vist to ireland and the irish defence forces 1916 commemeration of 2 years ago .

The London bombing footage was shown over and over, every 15 mins for days and weeks after .

To much for anybody to be subjected to this overflow of info

SprostonGreen

Its disgusting and vulgar, I urge everyone to watch something else.

911 was manna for them, since then its the same old sensational, repeat ad nauseum scare mongering.

gixerfixer

The first gulf war and 9/11 made news tv what it is today.Sky are the worst of a very bad bunch closely followed by CNN. Both channels are tripe IMO and tell the story from one side of the fence

Nick_oliveri

Yep, after 9/11 it was just another Fox clone. Terror alert this, dirty bomb that, muslim fanatic the other. 7/7 came and went (every 15 minutes for a good two months) They got sick of Iraq. Then there was Madeline... they milked that really really dry.

Milktrolley wrote: »

*sigh of nostalgia*

Fixed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6JXmgHcvag

Mint Sauce

most of it is just sensationalised

ronnie3585

SprostonGreen wrote: »

Its disgusting and vulgar, I urge everyone to watch something else.

Couldn't agree more. Sky News does not broadcast news, only human interest tripe and celebrity 'goss'....every fifteen minutes!

Mossy Monk

There are news channels there. You have to ignore channels 501 and 510 (on the Sky EPG at least).

Hardrain

Fox News is a disgusting piece of product.

madser

I agree Sky News is a joke, the breaking news bar is ridiculous, one day there will be some acual serious breaking news story which everyone will ignore because they'll think its crap:eek:

Pigman II

Sensationalist opinionated pap really. I stick it on in the mornings sometimes when I'm getting ready and the way they hammer on relentlessly about knife-crime and recession you'd swear the apocalypse was nigh.

I'd feel sorry for anyone who considers it an authentic source of news information or lets one iota of its spewed editorialising impinge on their view of the world they live in.

madser

Its just the UK version of Fox news which is a glorified tabloid production:rolleyes:

icdg

I don't think its as good as it used to be. In many ways, BBC News 24, sorry, I mean, the BBC News Channel, is more an inheriter of the legacy of the old Sky News from 1989-2001 that we all knew and loved. Its also closer in style, having the half hour "features" programming that were a hallmark of Sky in its old era. The 2001 relaunch was where things changed for me. All the features were ditched over the General Election period, returned very briefly afterwards before going for good. The Newswall marked style over substance although arguably used a lot better than ITV's equivilant, the much mocked theatre of news (as the BBC parady put it, the "Standing News").

Still, comparing Sky News with Fox is going overboard. Sky's never introduced (successfully) the sort of opinion-led schedule that Fox has become known for and certainly has no Bill O'Reilly equivilant (despite no less than three attempts to turn Richard Littlejohn into one).

alpha2zulu

My main pet hates of Sky News in it's current guise:
1. The amount of non-news, ie entertainment and huge amounts of sports coverage even though Sky Sports News is in existence.
2. That aircraft hangar/disco of a studio.
3.Very few presnters remaining with any sort of gravitas.
4. Overkill of the breaking news banner.

Is it just me, or does their evening bulletins sound like an advertisement for the Heathrow Express train....in 15 minutes, every 15 minutes!

Thankfully with a bit of tweaking of the sky box the BBC News channel becomes available:D

The Black Oil

They have a few good journalists but overall it's awful.

Dave!

Terrible terrible tabloid sh*te

Is BBC news 24 any good? Need another 24 hour news show really...

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

al jazeera english is where it's at imo

france 24 is grand when it's in english, and that russian tv station on sky ain't terrible.

Dave!

Princess Innocent Knickers wrote: »

al jazeera english is where it's at imo

Actually saw a bit of that... did they put it out free to air for a while or somethin?

Was well impressed with what I saw anywho.

Drag00n79

I don't watch Sky News anymore. It has fallen into the Fox News category for me. If I need news I tend to watch BBC News 24 or listen to Five Live.

darkman2

BBC News 24 is kind of going the same way as Sky News in the last year but it is way ahead of Sky News IMO. BBC news has an element of decency and integrity that Sky News never had. Much prefer BBC News........also Sky News has some seriously pretentious twats as journalists. Anyone remember the 'defence experts' they use to have? I felt like smacking them all for acting so smug.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Dave! wrote: »

Actually saw a bit of that... did they put it out free to air for a while or somethin?

Was well impressed with what I saw anywho.

well i have it as part of a sky package deal, so I dunno if it's free to air or if it's being paid for

but you can watch it online for free (awful quality, but still news is news) http://english.aljazeera.net/ here and they have a youtube archive of many of their shows http://www.youtube.com/user/AlJazeeraEnglish .

i reccomends listening post, great show looking at how the media around the world deals with different stories. the presenters really smug

ronnie3585

IMO Channel 4 News is the best program for broadcasting actual 'news', France 24 is good too. BBC 24 is definatly going down that greasy tabloid pole.

Sandwich

I think the general opinion through this thread is quite mistaken.
Sky News has changed - but is not tripe etc. It is targeting a different market, which it seems is not of interest to the posters here. It is probably even quite good given the brief it now sets itself.
Remember that more 'sh*te' daily newspapers are sold, catering to those of lower educational or intellectual level, than the so called quality dailys. That same constituency is a majority and available to TV news channels to pitch to also. National TV news systems general have a 'quality' remit in their charters or ethos which which tends to pitch itself at a certain, limited section of society. To see more free news programmes catering (due to a commercial opportunity) to another section of the market should not only be excpected, but be regarded as a good and equal phenomenon.

kraggy

ronnie3585 wrote: »

IMO Channel 4 News is the best program for broadcasting actual 'news', France 24 is good too. BBC 24 is definatly going down that greasy tabloid pole.

Agree. C4 news is factual, to the point and relevant.

Mossy Monk

Sandwich wrote: »

I think the general opinion through this thread is quite mistaken.
Sky News has changed - but is not tripe etc.

I am sorry but it is ****e. The Queen farting would be Breaking News. The Sun in video is all it is.

ejmaztec

Sandwich wrote: »

I think the general opinion through this thread is quite mistaken.
Sky News has changed - but is not tripe etc. It is targeting a different market, which it seems is not of interest to the posters here. It is probably even quite good given the brief it now sets itself.
Remember that more 'sh*te' daily newspapers are sold, catering to those of lower educational or intellectual level, than the so called quality dailys. That same constituency is a majority and available to TV news channels to pitch to also. National TV news systems general have a 'quality' remit in their charters or ethos which which tends to pitch itself at a certain, limited section of society. To see more free news programmes catering (due to a commercial opportunity) to another section of the market should not only be excpected, but be regarded as a good and equal phenomenon.

Sky knows how to get money from subscribers and from the providers on the EPG. All of their own branded channels represent tacky-telly.

An example of how dim Sky really is, in the world of real broadcasting, was their attempt at launching Irish news, thinking that people here would be falling over themselves just to watch it. Of course it failed miserably.

Feel free to disagree.

Sandwich

ejmaztec wrote: »

Sky knows how to get money from subscribers and from the providers on the EPG. All of their own branded channels represent tacky-telly.

An example of how dim Sky really is, in the world of real broadcasting, was their attempt at launching Irish news, thinking that people here would be falling over themselves just to watch it. Of course it failed miserably.

Feel free to disagree.

Rather thasn disagreeing, I think you may be missing my point : There's a lot a people out there who want to watch tacky-telly.

ejmaztec

Sandwich wrote: »

Rather thasn disagreeing, I think you may be missing my point : There's a lot a people out there who want to watch tacky-telly.

Only Rupert Murdoch would think that - and he probably wouldn't soil his senses with Sky's output. The plebs get what they're given and don't have any say in the matter.

Sandwich

ejmaztec wrote: »

The plebs get what they're given and don't have any say in the matter.

Not true. If the plebs were all listening to Radio 4 the purveyors of trash tv would all be out of business. Instead, they're part of an expanding business.

Radio Mad.

In my opinion, BBC World News is the best news channel by a mile. It and its equally brilliant sister station BBC World Service radio provide top-class world news services.

I caught a glimpse of Al-Jazeera while holidaying abroad and what I saw was quite good.

ITN's Channel Four News and the BBC's Newsnight are both brilliant.

While RTE provides a very decent news service as well.

ejmaztec

Sandwich wrote: »

Not true. If the plebs were all listening to Radio 4 the purveyors of trash tv would all be out of business. Instead, they're part of an expanding business.

Unfortunately, people allow themselves to be sucked in by the marketing men who convince them that what they are watching is second to none. The only advice that I can give is for you to take your Sky box out into the garden and shoot it.

After that you'll wonder why you hadn't done it before - you'll probably want to thank me, but there won't be any need, I'm always glad to set people on the right path.