BBC chief Lord Hall told MPs at yesterday’s media select committee hearing that new Newsnight editor Ian Katz, former deputy editor of The Guardian, is making a real difference, bringing “drive” to the programme. (Recent highlights in an attempt to out-crazy Channel 4 News include an interview with Cookie Monster, the Sesame Street puppet.) Hall then said Katz “has not finished changing the programme”.
That’s not the half of it. The Londoner hears that under Katz’s editorship, no Newsnight reporter may consider they will remain in their present job with the exception of political editor Allegra Stratton, with whom Katz once worked at... The Guardian.
Katz certainly knows how to draw attention to himself. After last night’s “And finally... ” item, in which Kirsty Wark was baking a cake (acknowledging the final of The Great British Bake Off), his sign-off in the credits was “chief taster”.
