Disappointing BBC COVID-19 coverage

[mtbc]

I use the BBC News website a fair bit. It is available without a paywall and less frustrating than Google News though the search is useless. Recently they have been disappointing me with a tendency toward what smells like clickbait. There have been headlines like, Will the rest of the UK follow Scotland on masks? and How close to developing a vaccine are we? and other more important questions I now forget^*, where the body of the article turns out to be broadly, We don't really know. I am no longer fooled by those.^† Especially, yesterday I did not bother clicking something that would tell me, Five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this evening. I mean, really? There are five things that I probably do not already know that I need to know that very evening? How stupid do they think I am? Are they turning into a tabloid? Fortunately this morning their site invited me to submit some feedback.

^*Update: Ah yes, another was, Coronavirus immunity: Can you catch it twice?

^†Update: Gah! Fooled again, by, How the government plans to get the UK back to work which, again, is more, We don't really know. If there is not any news then there is no need to pretend that there is.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

I think worldwide, except for maybe New Zealand and Germany, the plan is "We don't know."

[mellowtigger]

Yeah, I used to visit the BBC site frequently for the same reasons. It became clear during the whole Brexit mess, though, that the organization had a favored side, so now I regard them with the usual reticence that I hold for any group that thinks the libertarian hellscape is a good idea.

I still visit their pages, though, when I need an English-speaking-but-not-American view of USA politics. I wish I had better sources in Australia and India for that kind of thing.

[mtbc]

I sometimes look at the Times of India but not enough to have formed a clear opinion of them.