IS the BBC Scotland news flagship, Reporting Scotland, really failing to fully report the Scottish Parliament?
One regular commentator on Scottish politics, current affairs and the media thinks ‘Yes’.
Writing today about that ‘old chestnut’, the ‘Scottish Six’ news concept, blogger, Duncan Stephen, writes: “Perhaps the most lamentable thing about Reporting Scotland is not so much the quality of the programme, which I think is not too bad.
“The main problem is the fact that I couldn’t honestly tell you that today’s Reporting Scotland was all that different to the programme that existed before devolution.
“It is still presented as a local news programme; a disposable appendix of the Six.
“This adds to the perception that the Scottish media has, counter-intuitively, withered in the devolution era. Faced with more news to report in the form of a devolved Parliament, Scotland’s media has in fact failed to step up to the plate and is, by most accounts, weaker than it has ever been.
“Unlike the newspapers, Reporting Scotland is funded by the License Fee. So it doesn’t feel the pinch in quite the same way as commercial outlets. Maybe there is an opportunity for BBC Scotland to fill the gap that is being left by Scotland’s media by going ahead and launching the Scottish Six.”
