Babies and bathwater 1

(Should this one read like the outpourings of a miserable old git, I'm sure you'll tell me...)

If there's a repeated feature in the application of the Harding Hammer to BBC News, then, surprisingly for a journalist with an international background, it's a casual belittling of foreign expertise.

Some examples: ex-ITN man Jonathan Munro has decided that, generally, one person should be the strategic interface between correspondents and newsdesks in the on-the-day delivery of news output. This means, essentially, the end of a distinguished cadre of staff known as Foreign Duty Editors, or more recently, World Duty Editors. Sometimes curmudgeons, often, rightly, pernickety, these men and women were the buffer between madness on both sides of the news machine - and, at their best, shaped both domestic and international bulletins for the better. There 24-hours a day to chivvy, counsel and console the lonely correspondent in the field; to wedge less obvious, but still important, foreign reporting into bulletins largely ordered by Westminster-obsessed tyros; and, equally importantly, to stop overkill on stories that are not new, but get that bulletin bandwagon effect - "let's have a sit-rep; an explainer - and a think piece".

FDEs were often correspondents who'd come off the road, or people who hadn't quite made it in the field, or just reporters between postings.  Some would while away quiet hours in other tasks - a little light translation from Russian, some moonlighting for friendly foreign broadcasters. But they all understood the anxieties of the correspondents miles from base, and treated them with the patience and care of therapists when "London made a bad call". One of the greatest practitioners was Rhod Sharp, who translated his calm and genuine off-air concern for reporters and their stories into a treasure of a show on 5Live call Up All Night (which is bravely staggering on with inexplicably fewer and fewer resources)

On a much bigger scale of scale of casual depradation is the closure of a department called World Service News - with staff reporting to other managers. Not many redundancies (at this stage) but current Editor, Andy Whitehead, has told his team he'll be going in the New Year, once the transition has been effected. I think this is a shame. The best journalists are obsessive about particular fields of interest. In World Service News, you find people with deep hinterlands in countries beyond the ken of even University Challenge question-setters. It can seem a bit like train-spotting to outsiders, but, for seventy years or more, this collective knowledge has been a huge resource to the BBC.  As a group of people, they argue about world history, international politics, global trends, the absolute meaning of words, clarity of language - and, most importantly, the relative significance of world events, round the clock. The reputation of BBC News abroad, as a selector of running orders that make sense to listeners around the globe, is built on their expertise.

As with any bunch of obsessives, they can be difficult to manage. I had the privilege of minding the shop there for two hugely-enjoyable short spells, but you'd never put me down as an international news specialist. I don't think they should be run or selected and promoted, long-term, by a "generalist" editor/manager. And, in 8,000 jobs, there should be room for someone called Editor, World Service News.