FORGET the World Cup. Producers at the BBC seem to be taking part in a different sweepstake altogether. That is: How many days of mileage can we get out of Laura Kuenssberg's interview with Nicola Sturgeon?
According to the host of their Media Show, Ros Atkins, "we'll be referring back to it in 5 or 10 years time". So if you're sick of hearing about it, too bad. This is just the beginning.
By Thursday morning, the extensive content list from one single interview was the following:
- Full 55-minute interview on BBC Sounds
- 23-minute version for Kuenssberg's show
- Multiple Instagram Reels
- Multiple TikTok posts
- YouTube videos to various channels, including BBC Politics and BBC News
- YouTube shorts
- BBC News articles
- Facebook and X clips
But it's still not enough.
Don't get us wrong, we at The National understand the value of cross-platform posting. Especially when it's a big interview. But how long do you let it go on for? Where do you draw the line?
For the Beeb, the answer is apparently, you don't HAVE to draw the line at all.
The latest development in the BBC's Sturgeon Omnibus is that Kuenssberg was invited onto Atkin's podcast to dive even deeper into the real behind the scenes of the interview. Over 12 minute, Atkins and co-host Katie Razzall ask tepid, Journalism 101 questions about How to Book an Interview and What To Do If An Interviewee Is Sad, providing one of the better adverts AGAINST media transparency of recent years.
The only substantive information Kuenssberg bothered to provide was that Sturgeon was fairly quiet after the interview and her lawyer Aamer Anwar was involved in setting it up. Beyond that, this is standard clickbait. The BBC once again creating news about, you guessed it, the BBC.
In one particular highlight, a self-celebratory Kuenssberg boasts that her work is as hard as doing "10 rounds with Tyson". Not kidding.
Kuenssberg tells Atkins that interviewees can be drained after a difficult chat. "Sometimes I am as well, you know, because you're thinking and thinking and really trying to concentrate, and if you do that for an hour ... you feel like you've done 10 rounds with Tyson or done three A-level advanced maths papers," she says.
Gosh, Laura. The workers of the world put their fists up in solidarity.
I was under the impression that the Media Show was supposed to provide important context to how our media works. Unfortunately what could be a great piece of content for the Beeb has been overtaken by the corporation's endless obsession with itself.
Why look at the real challenges in the media space when you can give Kuenssberg space for self-promo and surface-level, empty descriptions of what reporting is all about?
