BBC on Curiosity

A few days ago I complained to the BBC about the lack of live coverage of the Curiosity landing. The automatic response promised a reply within ten working days. Impressively, it arrived just now.

Less impressively, it didn’t really say anything useful.

Thanks for contacting us regarding the BBC’s Olympic Breakfast on 6 August.

I understand you were disappointed news of Nasa’s Curiosity Rover landing on Mars wasn’t broadcast live on the programme.

Choosing the stories to cover in our programmes is a subjective matter and one which we know not every viewer will feel we get right every time. Factors such as whether it’s news that has just come in and needs immediate coverage, how unusual the story is and how much national interest there is in the subject matter will all play a part in deciding the level of coverage and where it falls within our output.

Essentially this is a judgement call rather than an exact science but BBC News does appreciate the feedback when viewers feel we may have overlooked or neglected a story.

It’s worth mentioning that there was coverage on our BBC News website at the time and that we’ve had a number of follow up stories and photo articles on the early days of Curiosity Rover’s mission on Mars, as the following articles illustrate:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19141172

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19145020

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19201742

Nevertheless, I’d like to assure you that we’ve registered your comments on our audience log for the benefit of news teams and senior management within the BBC. The audience logs are important documents that can help shape future decisions and they ensure that your points, and all other comments we receive, are made available to BBC staff across the Corporation.

I guess I’m just going to accept that the people who decide what is important enough to warrant live coverage on BBC Breakfast don’t have anywhere near the same priorities as me and most of my friends.

Which is all very disappointing.