Today, Jon Craig, late of the BBC, asks How many BBC men…?
On the day the BBC announced cuts and job losses, even the Prime Minister’s mild-mannered and quietly-spoken press spokesman, Mike Ellam, couldn’t resist a little dig at the number of the corporation’s senior correspondents attending the EU summit in Lisbon.
At a briefing about Gordon Brown’s so-called “red lines” in the controversial new EU treaty, Mr Ellam was asked for the Prime Minister’s view on the BBC’s announcement about job cuts.
“I could address that to the…” he said mischievously, pointing to each of the BBC journalists in front of him in the UK briefing room in the Lisbon Media Centre.
For the record, representing the BBC at the No 10 briefing were:
- Political Editor Nick Robinson
- News 24 Chief Political Correspondent James Landale
- Newsnight Political Correspondent David Grossman
- Radio 5 Live Political Correspondent John Pienaar
- Europe Editor Mark Mardell
Most, if not all, have their own producer at the summit and there is a team of BBC journalists here from Brussels as well as Westminster.
Incidentally, Sky News, ITN, Channel Four and Five News, each has just one correspondent at the summit.
Mr Ellam said, diplomatically, that the BBC cuts were a matter for its governors and licence payers, before adding, perhaps ominously: “They are entitled to value for money in the same way that taxpayers are.”
Quite.
Good old Sky – always first with the news…