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Right from its start on the fledgling Channel 4, Diverse Reports attempted to
break the rules that bound political current affairs on television. Restless
with the custom and practice of such orthodox political programmes as Question
Time (BBC, 1979-) and Weekend World (ITV, 1972-88), and their shift towards news
away from current affairs, David Graham, executive producer and co-founder of
Diverse Productions, wanted a new form which presented 'signed' current affairs
from a neutral base of traditional journalistic strength.
The programme's origins lay in Graham's The Friday Alternative (Channel 4,
1982-83), a re-thinking of the TV news agenda, reporting through different
voices, and re-examining conventions of news reporting through different
perspectives on events. Diverse Reports charged itself with finding the
acceptable middle ground between The Friday Alternative's distinctly racy style and being innovative through tough journalistic standards.
The two programmes helped abolish the traditional demarcations between news
and current affairs. While they were explicitly commissioned as news programmes,
each used political observations as an integral part of its output. Despite its
fresh, radical approach to current affairs presentation, The Friday Alternative was
cancelled to make way for Diverse Reports. The combination of qualities resulted
in a compromise.
The new programme aimed to develop a new form of political journalism on
television which recognised the political position of the reporter. The
programme focused on committed reporting, presenting openly right- and left-wing
journalists on screen and breaking the bonds of 'due impartiality'.
As a result, the programme was showered by complaints from all directions. A
report (tx. 13/6/1984) by Peter Clarke caricaturing the trade union NALGO was
angrily accused by such pressure groups as the Campaign for Press and
Broadcasting Freedom of letting the left-wing side down. Yet, apart from Clarke,
the programme employed such New Right pundits as Ferdinand Mount and Paul
Johnson; the left, meanwhile, was represented by the likes of Christopher Hird
and Beatrix Campbell.
Diverse Reports took up positions that were not normal for television,
stretching the terms of debate and striving to be honest about what was
presented. Unfortunately, while the signed report made for lively, provocative
television, it tended to lead its audience towards a limited set of conclusions. Such indulgences proved unsatisfactory for the non-partisan
viewer, as well as for Channel 4 itself, and Diverse Reports was axed in
1987.
Tise Vahimagi
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