A little knowledge

The Freedom of Information process is a narrow one; direct questions and one-off answers. So The Mail on Sunday takes a cheap shot at the BBC for adding a "Listening" course to the offer on its extensive training repertoire, and asserts that "thousands" of the 23,000 have taken it. Unlikely, I'd say. It's hard enough to get BBC staff to complete the compulsory courses that Deputy DG Mark Byford loves so much.

Then The Mail fulminates against the discovery that the BBC has appointed 18 people to new posts in the first two months of this year, with a minimum salary bill of £1.6m. What the paper doesn't ask is whether or not they're replacing more expensive staff who have left, and whether or not fewer people are covering more work in new, smaller structures. What do you think the answers to those questions might be ?