As ITV begins a revamp of its news and current affairs output for
the new year, the BBC’s Steve Anderson has been brought on board from
Januray to lead the offensive as controller of news and current
affairs.
Currently head of consumer programmes at the BBC, and the man behind
Watchdog, Anderson brings an action-packed heritage to the new post.
Anderson has lived most media studies graduates’ dream of a career,
working on World In Action, Panorama and Newsnight before coming to
consumer programmes.
While on Newsnight in 1990, for instance, he was rushed out to Saudi
Arabia after Iraq invaded Kuwait, flew back after a few weeks when it
became clear that the war wasn’t going to start for a while, only to
walk into Geoffrey Howe’s resignation and the speech that helped to
bring down Margaret Thatcher.
No sooner was the Conservative leadership battle over, then Anderson was
back in the Gulf, sneaking into closed off towns to film. He arrived in
Kuwait City through the infamous Mutla Pass with the Egyptian Army, past
the charred bodies of Iraqi troops fried in the US airforce’s battle of
the night before. Surely everything seems dull after that six month
period?
’It’s easy for that to happen and you do see it in reporters who become
war junkies, unable to file stories without bombs going off,’ says
Anderson.
’Journalistically speaking, however, a war is pretty hard to cover
badly.
It’s not a story you can miss. Labour’s Formula 1 row, on the other
hand, takes proper journalistic work.’
Anderson is keen on the root and branch of journalism, arguing that
presentation is irrelevant unless the raw facts are there. He is very
wary, however, of what he calls the journalistic agenda. ’I think news
reporting hasn’t changed over the last few years while viewers and the
world have changed enormously,’ he argues. ’News programmes still see
things in terms of the cold war and the Labour/Conservative political
battle. One thing I believe is that people want news that is useful to
them. They often see Tony Blair and William Hague slugging it out in the
Commons as irrelevant bickering.’
He argues, for instance, that people would be more interested in news on
a breakthrough in breast cancer than in the latest procedural dispute in
the Commons. Is that dumbing down?
’I don’t think UK television has dumbed down at all,’ he says. ’But I
think we could introduce elements of tabloid coverage to TV
journalism.
By that, I don’t mean the awful stuff they do but the sharp, succinct
and provocative reporting style tabloids employ. It’s hard for me to
tell you what I plan to do when I reach ITV, because everything is open.
It’s a time of great change in news and current affairs. What I can tell
you, however, is what I hate. I hate boring news programmes and I won’t
have them at ITV.’
HIGHLIGHTS
1987
Producer, BBC Breakfast News
1988
Producer, Newsnight
1994
Senior producer, Panorama
1995
Head of consumer programmes, BBC
1998
Controller of news and current affairs, ITV
