Can money make it right ?

There've been plenty of claims that cuts in budgets lead to dodgy journalism. I rather take the view that they lead to fewer stories covered in less depth, but the NUJ is piling on the previous bandwagon, picking up from this week's NAO report on the BBC's finances and the cuts required by Delivering Quality First.

It says: "The BBC is failing to monitor spending against its strategic and editorial priorities and this will become "more critical" as resources become squeezed under the corporation's programme to cut spending by 20 per cent, a report by the public spending watchdog has found. ..... 

 "At a recent meeting between the NUJ and Stephen Mitchell, deputy director of BBC News, the union asked what assessments had been made about the impact on the quality of service after implementation of Delivering Quality First, the cost-cutting scheme. The answer was that the BBC management had not undertaken or review or impact assessment.

This NAO chart attempts to line up strategy and finance. I'm surprised the cuts in news are only put at 2% over three years - the current pain seems much greater than that.