News values
Sir: Geoffrey Wheatcroft (25 November) is perfectly entitled to criticise the decision to lead the 8 a.m. Radio 4 News with the story that commercial television had bought exclusive right to Football League matches. But he is not entitled to cite in support of his argument what he calls more important stories of the day, such as the attempt to challenge Mr Bessell's immunity from prosecution and the secrets case. These were stories of the previous day, and reported fully by BBC Nor is he justified in seeing a trivialisation in BBC news coverage or a submerging of political, economic, and diPlomatic news. In the two weeks before football became such a matter of concern to Mr Wheatcroft (and for entirely dif" ferent reasons, to millions of other people) these were the lead stories in the 8 a.m. Radio 4 News: South African corruption report; threat of bakery workers strike; Government-TUC talks on PaY policy; Iran to have military government, policy statement by new Iranian Prime Minister; Rhodesia sanctions debate; tvi° 'rebel' Conservative MPs lose their jobs as Opposition front bench spokesmen; Government majority in Queen's Speech debate; Middle East peace talks latest; unrest in Iran; Middle East peace talks developments; Prime Minister criticises EEC agricultural policy; TUC and Chan.' cellor on pay policy; serious air crash in Sri Lanka. As for Mr Wheatcroft losing count ef the number of times the morning news had led with 'a major export order for Britain', I can only conclude he Inn° count on his fingers.
Stan Taylor Editor, Radio News, British Broadcasting Corporation, London W1
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