Prince Andrew: Emily Maitlis grills royal over Epstein
Emily Maitlis has slammed the BBC over its planned changes to Newsnight. The corporation yesterday made the announcement that it would be scaling back the programme and its funding by more than half.
The 53-year old openly had her say on X, formally known as Twitter, after a number of former Newsnight staff members spoke out. Emily was the lead anchor until 2021.
Hannah Barnes penned: “My thoughts are with my former @BBCNewsnight colleagues today, as they’re told that the programme as we know and love it is to be no more. It’s a terrible day for UK investigative and original journalism.
“Newsnight has been the home of some of the biggest, most important stories of the last five years and more, going places untouched by others in the BBC and the media. The financial climate is tough, but this seems like a small saving for such a huge loss.”
Sharing the post, Emily claimed: “Hannah’s extraordinary and exceptional journalism is a class example of what will now be lost @BBCNewsnight. The irony is how hard and how often @bbcnewsnight had to fight other parts of the BBC to be allowed to make risk-taking, policy changing, award-winning journalism.”
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She also reshared another post, stating: “It’s true. @BBCNewsnight is our Hotel California. All of us who checked out never really left. We lived through extraordinary times with the most incredible team spirit. And our thoughts are with the whole team tonight.”
Emily made another tweet saying: “Could the Prince Andrew interview have happened in this iteration of @BBCNewsnight? Of course not. Aside from the painstaking prep and lengthy research that demanded from the team, PA came to a flagship brand the BBC was proud of.
“It doesn’t feel that way tonight. Of course there will still be interviews and debates and the theme music will carry on. But once the bosses send out a signal they don’t really *care* about a flagship investigative news programme – the guests and the audience start to wonder why they should…”
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Newsnight, which airs on BBC Two, will lose its team of dedicated reporters and the show is set to be shortened by 10 minutes. It’s also set to drop its investigative reports.
Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, stated that the decision was in response to changing audience habits. The show will now be scaled back to just 30 minutes as part to save £500 million.
She told The Press Gazette: “Audiences have told us how much they value Newsnight as an iconic BBC debate and discussion programme, and we’ve listened to what they’ve said – we’ve made the decision to keep the programme on air five days a week, despite the financial challenges we face.
“Newsnight has also been a source of great investigative reporting and films but we know that people are consuming the news in different ways, and it can no longer make sense to keep a bespoke reporting team for a single television programme.”
Express.co.uk have contacted the BBC for comment.
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