How’s your news consumption these days? Are you on a news detox for the sake of your nerves, or are you constantly clicking to catch up on the latest developments? Statistics? What if you were the national, daily bearer of bad tidings, passing on the grim story to the masses every day? This is the life of a news presenter that BBC World News journalist Samantha Simmonds knows only too well.
“This story has been around for months since we started covering the news about China,” says Simmonds. “Reading it day in and day out is tough. When lockdown first happened I was so worried.” She admits that reading the news has been upsetting at times. “This particular story really hits home because we all know someone who has been affected. And because we are all in lockdown, you can’t separate yourself [from the story] in the same way. But you to have to try your best not to let it get to you.”
Throughout this crisis, many of us feel that we have been kept in the dark and treated like children when it comes to the hearing the facts of Coronavirus or the Government’s plans for our future. How do the BBC news teams decide what is important for us to know? And how do they sift fact from fiction?
“It’s a consensus and we work as a team,” she explains. “Any final interview questions are down to me and I have to do my own fact-checking alongside the editorial team. For example, if a doctor speaks out about there not being enough PPE, we obviously would have to check if that were true. These days it’s hard to get behind the statistics. Each day is different but we news organisations generally lead on the same story. People are telling more human-interest stories, we aren’t just pushing the Government line. There is a very high standard to news reporting in the UK and news has come under scrutiny. We are just trying to get things right.”
Simmonds, 47, grew up in Leeds in a traditional, Orthodox family with an Iranian mother and a Yorkshire-born father. Today, she lives in East Finchley with her husband Phill and their three children, Zeabella, seven, Zevi, nine and Rafael, 12. They are members of Muswell Hill synagogue.
Simmonds studied history and media studies at Liverpool University and recognised early on that journalism was her calling. During her summer holidays, she secured work experience at the local ITV news programme. “I realised then that I loved it — the live programme, the morning meeting. Once they let me out to interview people, I knew I wanted to be a journalist.”
Following a post-graduate diploma in broadcast journalism at City University and a stint at Radio Leeds as a reporter Simmonds returned to London, joining Channel 5 when it launched in 1997. “I spent a few years learning the ropes and the ins and outs of production. It was no easy ride. I was constantly pushing and there were many setbacks. I didn’t have a mentor, which would have been really helpful.” With this in mind, she has been mentoring for Ort, supporting people who want to get into journalism.”
With 11 years’ experience at Sky News and now at BBC World News, Simmonds has witnessed changes in news reporting.
“When I started, there was no social media; today, things move a lot quicker. We can find things out on social media rather than through traditional news feeds. But you have to check information a lot more thoroughly.”
Life in the studio can feel lonely now for those facing the camera. Gone are the make-up artists and hairdressers, only one floor manager is allowed in the same room as the news-reader, there is no glass of water to hand and social distancing measures are in place with one-way systems in the studio and limits to one at a time at the coffee station or in the lift. Simmonds drives to work — during lockdown parking in Westminster is free for BBC News workers.
“I am physically isolated, with the team in my ear,” says Simmonds. “I can’t see them. But there’s always banter. People trying to cheer each other up. My anxiety dream has always been about having to go on air with no make-up or good hair. Luckily, one of our make-up ladies sent some tutorials and I am managing to do it myself — hopefully without looking too much of a disaster. Despite the gravity of the news, I have been doing this for a very long time and experience has taught me how to stay calm and unflappable.”
Simmonds is currently doing a mixture of on-air presenting and being on standby at home as the BBC runs a collapsed schedule with BBC World News and the News Channel running much of the same programming.
As we speak, I can hear her kids in the background asking something about the time of their next family bike ride. Simmonds sends them away with: “Can’t you see, I’m on a call!”. And she admits, “parenting and home schooling in lockdown is the hardest job I have ever done. Right now, there’s no ‘me’ time. Home schooling three kids is like chasing sheep — the minute I get one to sit down, the other disappears off somewhere.
“I am literally in despair most of the day. I have started running. It’s the only way I get exercise and some quiet time.”
Her energy isn’t waning, though, as Simmonds has launched her own Covid-19 spin-off podcast Women in Lockdown, with her best friend and fellow journalist Lauren Libbert, where they talk candidly about what life is really like indoors — such as the essential nightly glass of wine and chilling out with Netflix after a full-on day of parenting.
The abrupt change to her working life due to social distancing is what affects Simmonds the most.
“Normally it’s such a collaborative, intimate situation at work and now it is so strange to keep your distance from people. And I will definitely remember it for the lack of professional make-up!”
