Soldiers, policemen and firemen

Forgive the sexist title.

This is prompted by an item on the BBC 10 o'clock last night on the pay of soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

I, like so many of us do, saw this with half my mind. I do remember thinking "soldier £14k a year, policeman £30k. Can this be right?". Then it was time for bed.

But that's what the BBC said.

All credit to my colleague teaching on the Cardiff course, Ros Bew, who picked that item up for her session today with our postgraduates.

It took no more than 30 seconds before 30 aspiring broadcast journalists had googled their way to a number of sources that showed the BBC story to be, at best, a half truth. The BBC was comparing the best of one with the worst of the other.

Huw, Craig I hope you read this.