What The Papers Say: BBC blasted for cutting down editors

The foot-shooting season continued at the BBC last week. Even

inherently favourable items, such as the development of a 24-hour

internet news service attracted criticism for wasting money on

non-broadcast services. But the major story was the attempt to save

pounds 30 million by streamlining news editors, attracting serious fire

from media correspondents, commentators and leader writers.

Although the BBC gagged some presenters ’on air’, broadcast items

provided a mix of BBC News’ chief executive Tony Hall for the BBC and

John Tusa and Shirley Williams for the opposition.

Director general John Birt came in for a savaging, especially for being

out of town when the news broke, although Stephen Glover in the Daily

Telegraph (19 Sept) gave guarded support: ’Hang on Birt’s right’. Hall

played the role of messenger to perfection, finally falling on his sword

when he admitted on Radio 4 that he thought ’the changes were poorly

received because of poor PR’. Will the BBC’s next job vacancy ads offer

DG or PR positions?

Evaluation and analysis by CARMA International. Cuttings supplied by The

Broadcast Monitoring Company. ’What The Papers Say’ can be found at:

www.carma.com.