Oh Dear, Auntie!

In days of yore, dear old auntie BBC could be relied upon as a bastion of commonsense and reliable news reportage.
But that very British disease of ‘dumbing down’ has struck.
Even reporting cricket matches on their Internet site has been delegated to some young honchos who apparently watch the matches, rather embarrassingly I feel, on Sky TV. From their comments, I can only assume that they have never played the game.
The other day I saw that they have hired a bus, suitably decorated with BBC logos, which will, wait for it, ‘Cross America!’ Wow! On board will be another incisive reporter who will interview the common man (or, I suppose, woman) on the presidential race.
It was billed, breathlessly, rather as would be a trip up the Amazon in a canoe or Stanley’s expedition to find Livingstone.
Now it may have escaped their attention that every day, Greyhound buses criss cross America with fares at rock bottom prices. If their intrepid reporter really wanted to meet with a cross section of the American public, all he had to do would be to board one and save a vast amount of the licence fee payer’s money.
And yesterday, Andrew Marr, who really should have known better, was there in the bowels of the earth as they fired up the Cern project.
“Phew,” he said, “That was a relief,” when the end of the world did not take place.
Well, it was hardly likely.
It was a test run and it is not until they fire a beam in the reverse direction and make the two collide that there will be any chance of a cataclysmic event taking place.
But for the BBC, who cares nowadays if the story is accurate.