Bungling BBC bosses face a daily barrage of abuse from Rupert Murdoch's papers, except when they are taking on "The Unions". "Who missed the lefty luvvy James Naughtie?" the papers asked, and not surprisingly told us that "you could watch Sky News anyway". Tony Blair's favourite media baron has every reason to attack the National Union of Journalists because, although he helped smash the organisation in the 1980s, it has made a spectacular comeback, nowhere more quickly than at the BBC.
How wonderful it was to hear the Beeb boss Mark Byford get a good kicking from John Humphrys on the Today programme for refusing to negotiate. Given that the BBC is owned by us, this attitude is scandalous, and the government should demand that the BBC talk to the unions. Problem is, they have exactly the same attitude to the brothers and sisters as the Beeb. Having seen off the Fire Brigades Union and its leader Andy Gilchrist, Tony Blair is only too happy now to watch any unions suffer - never mind that they bankrolled Labour's election campaign.
The rest of the media certainly enjoyed reporting the strike and, inevitably, much was made of who "scabbed" and who didn't. The solidarity of the high-profile reporters was remarkable, although many of them are on individual contracts and BBC bosses can be ruthless. I know of one presenter who found out he had lost his job by reading the Guardian's media diary. Still, only one political reporter scabbed: Daisy Sampson. Perhaps she thought that now she's been on Have I Got News For You, she's as important and famous as Terry Wogan - who naturally crossed the picket line, too.
