How a stranded mammal filled 24-hour news schedules
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Your support makes all the difference.It could have been a scene from the BBC's parody of 24-hour news channels, Broken News. Sky News devoted near-blanket coverage yesterday to the tale of the marine mammal that strayed further up the Thames than any other whale since records began.
The adventures of the northern bottle-nosed whale - prematurely named Pete the Pilot by theEvening Standard which mistakenly identified the mammal as a pilot whale - yielded impressive images to begin with.
As soon as the Press Association broke the story at 11.18am, the recently revamped Sky News scrambled its crews and the "Skycopter" to the scene. By 12.31pm, Sky News was beaming out the first live aerial pictures of the whale, about half an hour before BBC News 24.
But Sky continued to cover the story even when there was very little visible whale activity - using the device of a split screen to show the earlier action as well as the live scene.
All hands were brought on deck, including the bemused crime correspondent, Martin Brunt, who was diverted from his usual beat to monitor the mammalian saga.
Not since the London bombings in July 2005 had a single topic commanded such undiluted attention from the news channel.
The story was fuelled throughout the day by the enormous volume of text messages sent in to the news service, while marine experts provided continuing commentary.
Kevin Bakhurst, controller of BBC News 24, said the coverage demonstrated the different approaches of the two channels.
He said: "It's a good story, eminently reportable, so it's worth a good deal of coverage, but my view is there are other very important stories going on in the world.
"I think it marks out a distinctiveness. It probably guarantees Sky News good viewing figures all afternoon, but we are a different proposition."
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