(According to the usual reliable sources) Five news, followed closely by 4 and possibly Newsnight (subject to a viewer poll) will henceforth no longer 'fake' news interviews by using reconstructions such as walking shots, reporter noddies, cutaway questions. So will we now see an outbreak of jump-cuts, fast 'verite' dissolves or just long uncut rushes? Or maybe 2 camera news shoots will become the norm.
Whether this rush to honesty will include captions that say 'This is NOT this person's office, these are NOT his books, this is NOT her office staircase' has yet to be announced. Well, I'm glad it's not me having to cut the things under pressure.
It's a great blow to the 'most unconvincing cutaway of the week' competition we've long run in my household - although there is still hope for the local TV standby, the 'interviewee making a cup of tea/doing the washing up' mini-sequence.
Amusing too, to note that five's exec described all these disgracefully dishonest tricks as redolent of 'tired old showbiz' and went on to say they're no longer necessary because of all the new editing tech we have (ie flash frames, verite dissolves, see above).
It won't be long until we all have to sign an Editor's Oath to work on news.
