Not a new story but..... 

The BBC gets a daily bashing from those who perceive its bias in various areas and it's not really an argument I want to get into, although I do understand that unlike say Fox or Sky it is funded from taxation and so is held up to more scrutiny than a privately owned company who can basically do and say whatever they like.

However the one area of the BBC that does concern me and has for a number of years is the apparently high number of what I would call 'non-jobs'. Watch any news based programme or listen to any of the radio stations and the number of journalists talking to other journalists is depressing. Being at home yesterday afternoon I was watching the news on BBC 24 and at just after 4:30 Louise Minchin (she's still a fox by the way) handed over to the studio bound sports editor. She then spoke via a link to another reporter at Wimbledon to then handed over to yet another reporter whose job was to do the voiceover on thirty seconds of action. One story, three journalists.

I've seen the 'overmanning' at the RHS Flower Shows where a lot of the coverage is outsourced and no doubt the BBC would say they pa the market rates and the staffing numbers are not their responsibility, well yes and no. Surely their job is to get the best value for the taxpayer. Modern technology now means lighter cameras with better sound and vision recording abilities than ever before - in fact I seem to remember both the BBC and ITV suffering from strike action back in the 1990's when, the then, new technology raised its heads.

There are too many events taking place on TV where journalists are not part of the equation and therefore objective questions are not asked (almost any sports coverage on BBC, ITV or SKY these days) simply old boys discussions between old pros which don't really enhance the viewing pleasure but the BBC goes the other way in its news coverage with a succession of editors and correspondents asking each other banal questions or over reporting very simple issues and events.