There seems to be a fundamental flaw with the basic concept of 24-hour rolling news stations, a problem never more evident than when a story breaks unexpectedly.
Like most people, I was shocked by the story of CBBC's Mark Speight being arrested on suspicion of murdering his girlfriend when I read about it on Friday morning. Quite frankly, it blew my mind, and my mind remained well and truly blown for the rest of the day as I was frequently reminded about it.
When I got home I happened upon this article in reference to the story. It doesn't really tell you much, but clearly there wasn't much information available at the time. What's most interesting though, is the embedded video at the top of the page. Here it is in case it disappears at some point:
What's striking is that correspondent Martin Brunt appears to actually know very little; indeed he seems to repeat the same three facts over and over again, implying that his in-depth research for this story amounted to a quick glance at Ceefax.
Curiously, he seems unsure about the most recent TV work of the people involved, something a cursory Google search would have confirmed for him.
At the end of the clip, when they all but claim to know bugger all, you kind of wish they would just say so instead of ploughing on with the relentless padding, rather than appear to lose face by admitting they've found no further new information.
In fact, as I write this, there's actually a suggestion that he had nothing to do with her death at all, but the best you can say is that no-one really knows anything either way.
What is true to say is that whatever the outcome, having his face appear on TV every 10 minutes with the word 'murder' associated with it isn't going to do him any favours.
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