This must surely rank as one of the most remarkable and ridiculous moments in the short history of 24-hour news channels. Carrie Gracie, a presenter about whom I’ve had my doubts for a while thanks to her uncomfortable flirting with fellow anchor Simon McCoy every morning, gets completely flummoxed during an interview and admits to a salary of £92,000.
It begs the obvious question of what right anyone has to bleat about dodgy MPs’ expenses when they are paid almost £30,000 a year more for doing what is essentially a completely inconsequential job.
I (maybe) wouldn’t begrudge Paxman his pay packet – and I dare say he earns a lot more than this – thanks to his knack of holding the establishment to account with consistent brilliance. Ditto the top war reporters or in fact anyone who helps to illuminate otherwise darkened corners of public life.
But £92,000 for what is essentially a glorified daytime TV autocue reader? You must be having a laugh.
The Conversation {9 comments}
She’s not flustered at all. Bravo her
I thought she handled it well, it was natural to be flustered at such a question. She’s worth every penny!
£92,000? well that’s more than a nurse, a fireman, a school teacher, etc…how can someone that reads an autocue for an hour or two a day whilst being prompted with questions via an ear piece be worth more?
The first two comments on this post are well wide of the mark. She’s out of her depth.
Are those first two comments real? In no sense did she handle herself well. She got slapped down for her shrill hectoring and then totally outmaneuvered into revealing her grossly inflated salary. Once she admitted to a £92K salary it was game set and match.
She was fantastic! And made Lord Faulkes shiver in his shoes. Well done!
In one sense she did well, in another sense not. Foulkes was probably expecting her to dodge the question like he would’ve done, so she did well to just answer it outright. On the other hand, she didn’t really make the point well enough that it was irrelevant that her salary was about 1.5 times that of an MP (NOT double, Foulkes you fool), as her £92,000 is exactly that, and isn’t topped up by expenses, secon home allowances etc procurred via deceptive and dishonest means.
^^No she wasn’t and no she didn’t. Foulkes is correct, the media are undermining democracy:
Because of the unique way the BBC is funded, they are able to dictate to the public which party they will vote for at the next election. Notice how, for the first 3 weeks of this “scandal”, all we heard was how the Govt MPs expenses were handled.
Now, nearly a month later, we are only just getting information on Conservative expenses (even then they seemed reluctant) – and now people will forever link the expenses to this Labour government. MPs claimed ridiculous expenses before 1997, you know.
The irony is that it will be THIS government who sorts it out…
Have no doubt that Carrie Gracie is paid certain expenses on top of her £92,000 entry level, starter salary. Perhaps we could now have a full declaration of all her expenses? And those of every media colleague, whether paid by the taxpayer or otherwise. No more sneering and jeering until your own salary and expenses regime are revealed?
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