BBC NUJ Strike

In early November 2010, the “journalists” at the BBC went on strike for a few days, prompting this to The Independent:

Sirs,

I would like to thank the BBC for the quality of the coverage put out during the NUJ strike. My one regret is that the strike has to end.

I say this in all sincerity. Having some lesser-seen faces presenting the news made it fresh, relevant and without barriers. Usually, the self-important ego-filled talking heads seem to think that journalism consists of insulting people and pushing their own opinions forward.

Having a collection of news reporters that concentrated on reporting rather than “covering” was a breath of fresh air.

Also, the very annoying habit of having a talking head interview another talking head was absent. This is also a vast improvement, especially when the interviewed is that awful Robert Peston chap who can’t string a sentence together without half a dozen “um”s and an equal number of first person pronouns. He also doesn’t know as much about economics and finance as he thinks he does, being wrong as often as he is right.

So, if I might be so bold, if the BBC has to save money, it should get rid of a lot of the over-priced “journalists”, promote the current second tier people and start an apprenticeship scheme to get fresh blood in.

Seriously. The strike coverage was *so* much better than normal.

Best regards

Paul Harper