Battle of the broadcasters: covering the US election

The US Presidential Election Coverage, BBC, Sky News, Fox News, CNN, LBC, Times Radio

US Presidential elections are a source of fascination for a comparatively small number of British political observers. Yet the resources put into covering them by all the major broadcasters are massive and totally out of proportion to the number of viewers their election night programmes attract.

I cannot claim to have watched all the output of the UK or US news networks, mainly because I was presenting LBC’s election night coverage. However, I had two TV screens in front of me during our seven-hour long show (CNN and Sky, since you ask), and I have watched a lot of the subsequent BBC, Sky and CNN output.

CNN had amazing graphics, but they tended to bamboozle with rapid fire statistics, which didn’t stay on screen long enough for the viewer to digest them properly. Sky’s were much clearer and comprehensible. Fox News’ election night coverage is often unrivalled, both visually and in terms of commentary. From what I have seen, this week has been no different. Out goes the right-wing slant, in comes the best analysis and the best graphics. They incurred the wrath of the Trump campaign by calling Arizona for Biden, which led to an angry phone-call between Trump and Rupert Murdoch, in which the latter allegedly put the phone down on the former.

The BBC’s coverage was fronted by Katty Kay in Washington and Andrew Neil in London, on his BBC presenting swansong. I caught up with their morning coverage with Laura Trevelyan and Matthew Amroliwala. The lowlight came when their correspondent Anthony Zirka said (with a straight face) that politicians who attempt to appeal to the working classes were indulging in “economic populism”. It’s this kind of elitist arrogance which is a complete turn-off and has led to many people despairing of the mainstream media. The inability of some BBC journalists to understand the popularity of Donald Trump is a repeat of the way they miscalled and misjudged the Brexit referendum, and the electoral popularity of Boris Johnson. It is as if they all attend the same Islington dinner parties and laugh at the working classes through the prism of their champagne flutes.

On the radio, we at LBC started our coverage at 10pm, broadcasting in vision too, from our new Westminster studio at 4 Millbank. We normally have a cast of characters in the studio, but this was impossible on Tuesday. Social distancing meant all guests were beamed in on giant screens from wherever they were in the US or UK. Shelagh Fogarty and I reprised our election night act for the fifth time. We concentrate on informality, informed comment, a bit of banter and joshing as well as top notch interviews. We received rave reviews for making it all accessible and not talking down to people, which many felt the TV channels were doing.

Rather bizarrely, Times Radio didn’t start its election programme until 1am, led by the irrepressible Matt Chorley in London and Tom Newton-Dunn in America. On TalkRadio the controversialist Mike Graham led their coverage, while BBC Radio’s 4 and 5 Live shared their coverage with the World Service.

As I write this column, on Friday morning, we still don’t know the result. All the UK and US news channels are still on rolling news mode, and will no doubt continue to be so until a result eventually emerges.

Perhaps the most bizarre event of the whole saga came late on Thursday night when several US networks pulled out of Donald Trump’s live statement in the White House due to inaccuracies and outright lies in what the President had asserted was happening with regard to voter fraud. This follows Twitter attempting to censor his tweets. On both counts, this is a worrying development. Yes, Trump’s comments and tweets are increasingly deranged, but it is not for either mainstream media or social media to act as a filter, or to decide what people are allowed to hear or read. For good or ill, he remains President of the United States. Regardless of the media’s feelings about him, you cannot censor what the Commander in Chief has to say. It treats people like idiots: most can work out for themselves whether the President’s remarks are to be taken seriously or not.

Sir Cliff Richard at the BBC, BBC4, iPlayer

On 14 October, Sir Cliff Richard turned 80. It hardly seems credible that the Bachelor Boy has entered his ninth decade. This week he released his autobiography, The Dreamer, and released “Music…the air that I breathe” – a new album. He’s showing no signs of disappearing into his dotage, with a major tour planned for next autumn as well.

In the week after his birthday, BBC4 put on a bit of a lame celebration by re-showing Summer Holiday and an hour-long compilation called Cliff at the BBC. It wasn’t quite the right way to mark a landmark birthday of the man who has sold more records in this country than any other British singer in history; it felt as if they were going through the motions.

The BBC owe Cliff Richard for what they put him through on the day the police raided his house over sex abuse allegations, and the BBC decided it was appropriate to send a helicopter to cover the event. There were five BBC executives involved in that decision. Despite having to apologise and losing a court case brought by Sir Cliff, none of them lost their jobs and astonishingly two of them were promoted. The fact that his new single is on the Radio 2 Playlist (albeit the “C” list) and his new album is Radio 2’s Album of the Week, is perhaps a more welcome form of apology.

I first saw Cliff Richard in concert in 1978 at the London Palladium. I was 15 years old and have been a fan ever since. I was introduced to him at a charity event around 8 years ago and for the first and only time in my life, I became completely tongue-tied. Luckily this didn’t happen this week when I got to do an hour-long interview with him via Zoom. Gone was the gaunt look that we saw on that famous day outside the High Court. Back was the youthful persona we’ve all become used to. It was, however, sad to learn that his dealings with the criminal justice system have led to him falling out of love with Britain. He doesn’t have a home here any longer and clearly hankers after a new life in the US. Even though he clearly thrives on the public adulation he receives here, the US offers him the anonymity he can never get in Britain or Europe. Wherever he lives, I hope he carries on recording for many years to come.

You can watch Iain’s interview with Sir Cliff here.