Gnashing of teeth

Another saying farewell to BBC News in the Easter Exodus of Expertise is Anthony Massey. He's had a solid career in Newsgathering, on the home and foreign desks, and on the road, but I'm afraid he's unlikely to bust the DG limit on pay-offs of £150k.

Compare and contrast that with the financial fortunes of the man who bit Anthony's arm in 1988, Mark Thompson. Anthony sought disciplinary proceedings at the time, but was dissuaded. Mark went on to peak at a DG salary of £838k, the biggest public service deal in 2010, accruing a pension pot of £374k when he left Auntie in 2012. His BBC pension will be slightly dented by the infamous "broken service", when he went on work experience at Channel 4, but I'll wager it'll be bigger than Mr Massey's.  Thommo's total package at the New York Times this year was $4.5m.