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Coronavirus

Journalists

(19 Posts)
Crazygran Sat 21-Mar-20 14:32:06

Sorry for the rant but just watching today’s (sat) Downing St bulletin where the minister is telling us there will be enough food if we are careful and a journalist asks “How long before food runs out in this country” Is that at all helpful?
Give me strength.
Another one just asked should people go away on booked Easter hols in this country ?
I give up .
Best wishes to everyone , keep safe and Happy Mothers Day to all our lovely Mums.

fourormore Sat 21-Mar-20 15:48:54

Glad it wasn't only me shouting at the journalists Crazygran!!!
Honestly we were losing the will to live with the stupid questions.
Another frustrating thing was that none of the 'experts' seemed to be able to string a sentence together coherently? So many 'ers' and 'ums' but that's probably due to us feeling fed up that we're nit picking!

M0nica Sat 21-Mar-20 16:37:10

Faced with these stupid journalists the 'ers' and 'ums' are probably replacements for the rather stronger language they would prefer to use.

Anniebach Sat 21-Mar-20 16:41:09

The journalists ask the most stupid questions, why should we want to know if Johnson is seeing his mother this Sunday .

So many questions as stupid as ‘how long is a piece of string’

fourormore Sat 21-Mar-20 22:49:54

Journalists seem to ask ridiculous questions wherever they go!
For example:
You've just left a building where a bomb has just exploded - how do you feel?
You managed to get out of the Grenville Tower flats -
how do you feel?
Honest to goodness I wonder about their mentality at times!

Ellianne Sat 21-Mar-20 23:14:13

Or the one who asked if there were any private hospitals outside London?!!

May7 Sat 21-Mar-20 23:28:30

One of the journalists asked about looting (I think he was from the Sun. ? ) I too was incensed watching them. They spread fear amongst us I’m afraid. Who started with the there are no hand gels to be found and photos of empty shelves....

Jane10 Sun 22-Mar-20 07:24:47

We've found it best just to watch the PM and experts present their speech and switch off after that. The journalists questions are so irritating and trying to make their own points.
The PM and experts are specialists in their fields not TV presenters so shouldn't be judged on the ums and ahs.

vampirequeen Sun 22-Mar-20 07:30:36

The journalists questions are designed to give the PM and cohorts the opportunity to look good. It's nothing to do with whether we really want to or would have asked that question. An inane question about private hospitals allows the PM to waffle on about how many private beds are coming into the system. Obviously no one asks the more awkward questions such as, 'How much are we paying the private hospitals?' or 'Doesn't this prove that over the last 10 years you've pushed the NHS to breaking point by reducing funding so it can no longer cope in a crisis?'

Jane10 Sun 22-Mar-20 08:02:14

I disagree. Why would this disparate bunch of journalists play the government's game? They ask awkward and uncomfortable questions that you can sometimes see them struggle to answer or deflect.

fourormore Sun 22-Mar-20 11:15:16

I wish one of the journalists would ask if they now regret closing all the little cottage hospitals that we've lost over the past few years.
Wouldn't they have been useful as isolation hospitals?

vampirequeen Sun 22-Mar-20 12:56:23

The journalists ask the type of questions their proprietors require them to ask.

Jane10 Sun 22-Mar-20 15:08:53

fourormore coincidentally, today we passed 3 of what used to be called cottage hospitals. They are still in NHS use but under different names as various special units or clinics. Not gone just rebranded.

Canalboatgranma Sun 22-Mar-20 15:19:58

I wish the journalists were restricted to one question instead of asking multiple questions, usually pretty stupid ones, just to hear their own voices.

Ellianne Sun 22-Mar-20 16:01:54

Yes, I sometimes think the polictians are very clever to remember the string of questions put to them by each journalist. I would have forgotten the first one by the time they were asking the third one!
I guess each journalist wants to get in as many questions as possible because they don't get another chance in that briefing.

Lynnipinny Sun 22-Mar-20 17:02:11

I think the media is making people panic. On Merseyside there are vast shortages no flour eggs soap toilet rolls the list is endless. What I am finding most annoying is news coverage. Most of the reporting is about London it's not the only city in this country we all matter.

Anniebach Sun 22-Mar-20 17:15:20

I so agree Linnipinny , what ever is said today by the PM and the experts the media will find someone to say they were
wrong

Fiachna50 Sun 22-Mar-20 17:47:08

Anniebach and Linnypinny, I agree with you both.

May7 Sun 22-Mar-20 22:30:28

Its because London is so densely crowded the virus is spreading quicker there.

It does get irritating when Westminster concentrate on London, but the rest of us North of Watford have been used to that behaviour for a long time. You've only got to listen to the weather today in London its sunny and its mild for the rest of the country