BBC's Iraq Week begins

‘A new poll out today shows that Iraqis are increasingly insecure and pessimistic about their future’, says the lead News 24 story today. Well, who would have thought?

But still, the Beeb are to be commended for their decision to increase their coverage, when studies have shown that many viewers report ‘tuning out’ when war coverage appears on the main news broadcasts.

It was refreshing this morning to see Huw Edwards back out on the front line, and to see behind the scenes of the coverage, where video editing equipment sits in tents protected only by five second mortar warning alerts. This is one of many ways in which the Beeb is finding a new angle, and doing it in a useful way.

I realised just a few minutes ago, at 13:09 local time, Baghdad, that the interview I was watching with Baghdad citizen Usama Ridha was the only interview with ‘the man on the street’ I had seen in a long time (Months? A Year?) which wasn't in the immediate aftermath of a bombing, or some other kind of attack on one side or another.

These interviews are what the BBC calls the ‘My Iraq’ segments. Just talking to people on the ground to give a picture of what life is like rather than just what a certain bombing has resulted in (which we can guess without help) is a much-needed fresh approach from a return to more traditional journalism.

And the three little marketing consultants said "Wii? Wii? Oui!"

The Beeb are thankfully never short of stories that put an amusing spin on tired material. Quoting Nintendo president Satoru Iwata today, the BBC site explained Nintendo's reponse to the news that some users were hitting objects - such as television screens - during their frantic playing sessions:

‘Some people are getting a lot more excited than we'd expected.

‘We need to better communicate to people how to deal with Wii as a new form of entertainment.’

So... the Wii is so packed with entertainment goodness that it has gone totally out of Nintendo's control, and gamers have been transformed into sweaty beasts, content to destroy house and home as the price for a gaming ‘fix.’ And the advice they so badly need to communicate? ‘Nintendo also cautioned players to stay at least three feet away from the TV and to make sure people and objects were safely outside their range of motion.’ What would we ever do without them?