WHAT a flamin’ waste.
That’s the headline in one of today’s tabloid newspapers.
Followed by an “exclusive” story which will be all too familiar to those who have followed the saga of the BBC move to Salford Quays.
“The BBC is to land licence-payers with a £3m bill to send sport staff to cover the London Olympics from Manchester – just a year after it relocates from the capital,” it begins.
“The Beeb will move 1500 workers to its MediaCity base in Salford in 2011.
“But just 12 months later, many of them will be forced to make the 400-mile round trip to cover the games.”
You can read the rest of The Sun’s report here.
Just one more “exclusive” in a long line of stories re-hashing the same issue.

I’ve written about it many times.
Way back in 2004, I interviewed BBC director-general Mark Thompson and wrote:
“Some have questioned the move of BBC Sport to Manchester at a time when London is bidding to host the 2012 Olympics
‘I think any London Olympics is going to be a very big task,’ says Mark.
‘But, in the end, it’s going to last two-and-a-half weeks – and we’re talking about the future of BBC Sport over the next 20, 30, 40 years or so.
‘Sport will have a great centre in Manchester but will continue to be covered around the UK and the world.’”
In 2005, on the day London won the right to host the 2012 Games, I wrote:
“The BBC has insisted it will not change director general Mark Thompson’s plan to move its sports department to Manchester, despite today’s victory for London’s 2012 Olympics bid.
“A BBC spokesman said: ‘It’s one event in a busy calendar of sport.
‘You can’t base all your plans on one event. The geographical point is not an issue.
‘That makes the assumption that everybody who works in BBC Sport is sitting in central London at the moment.
‘To cover sport you have to move people and equipment round the country anyway. For instance, the majority of our football coverage at the moment takes place outside London.’
“Mark Thompson added: ‘The Olympics are going to be in Beijing in 2008 but we are not going to move the sports department to Beijing.’”
Although not fully spelled out in today’s report, a key BBC Sport Olympics planning team will remain in the capital ahead of 2012.
And the “1500 workers” moving to Salford is, in fact, the number of staff posts transferring north in five departments, of which BBC Sport is just one.
Independent experts reckon any figure over 40 per cent of staff choosing to relocate would be regarded as high.
Which puts today’s story into further perspective.
Was there such an outcry when London-based BBC Sport covered the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester?
I think not.
The Sun is, of course, owned by Rupert Murdoch, whose global media empire is not averse to bashing the BBC.
For reasons which may not always be entirely sporting.
MediaCityUK
MediaCityUK Blog
MediaCity In Photos and Images
Follow Ian Wylie on Twitter
Update: The Life of Wylie blog has moved to www.lifeofwylie.com