I've been following the saga between the BBC and the rest of the publishing world as they square up to each other over Auntie's increasingly long reach into the commercial world, and the players in that market place shouting unfair competition.
Now, the problem it seems is that no-one believes that the BBC Trust is ever going to do much more than green light BBC empire building plans, especially after a member of the trust was heard lamenting the quality of the regional press over lunch, just as the Trust is reviewing the BBC plans for a £68m splash on local online video news.
Well, let me assure you that those remarks were a gross error.
Witness Adam Smith, journalist for the Birmingham Mail, sent out to the US to cover the US election. Clearly tired and emotional (I believe is the current euphemism) Smith launched into a video tirade against his employer and of all the ironies, claimed to be copying and pasting from the BBC the coverage he was sending back to the black country. Finally, the grim realisation of what he had done dawns on him through the alcoholic fog and he resigns.
You might have thought that was enough, but he then posted another video as a sober and unemployed "hard-nosed journalist" apologising to the Birmingham Mail. Now that's quality, but for all the wrong reasons.
Contains some strong language
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