A few words in support of newsreaders in response to Jeremy Paxman’s incontinent outburst (Can any fool read the news? Tim Dowling finds out, 16 April).
News programmes are live and the running order hops around. Items are dropped, and important incoming news and interviews are hurriedly added direct on to your computer from the newsroom. There is no time to plan the new interview or check a pronunciation, and most video items you won’t have seen as they are fed in live from anywhere in the world. The hours of pre-programme work done on familiarising yourself with what’s going on in the world may help, or not, as the running order changes.
An earpiece keeps you in touch with the director and editor. On “open talkback”, you get everything from the director’s box in your ear, possibly as you’re reading, with the advantage that listening in can get a few seconds’ warning of change, or the impending disaster of nothing being available. A volatile director who swears a lot can be stressful.
So are newscasters fools? Only perhaps for risking their sanity by doing the job at all.
Anna Ford
London
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