Supermarkets Swept

A number (maybe 11, maybe around 14) Tesco supermarkets have been closed by police across the UK today. News broke around 7pm tonight. When we checked BBC News online, a webpage hadn't been created for it, and it was just a "breaking news banner". BBC News24 on Freeview were asking viewers for information.

Shortly afterwards a webpage was created here; and the public were sending in reports and photos to the BBC tv news. By 8.20pm, the BBC had their own footage of a closed Tesco store.

Some shops had been closed just after noon (1230BST).

If you notice the time delay, and the lack of professional journalists being involved, maybe the question shouldn't be about the rise in user generated content, but the reliance by professionals on user generated content. Did the BBC chiefs sack all the local journalists in the last pay cuts? Six hours, and no-one at the news desk got wind of a story?

Am I being unkind? Police cordons, supermarkets shut, nothing, not important. Not newsworthy - like a LEJOG walk, it happens daily. But 11+ across the UK? Even Julia Sawalha in a dressing gown would have found a story there (ToR link).