Down with Greece (and the BBC)

A strange night at Newsnight last night, when Paxo introduced an item about the latest Greek crisis by saying that the action wasn't mainly about demonstrations, and then we got detailed coverage of ... a demonstration. Only deep into Paul Mason's report did we get the political news that the attempt to form a government of national unity had failed (no surprise there) and that there would be a vote of confidence in a few days which the government wasn't certain to win.

Mason did point out that the demonstrators were demonstrating against paying their debts and had no ideas about what they might be demonstrating for, or even what would happen if they got their way. And then, just as we might be getting to the meat of the problem, it was off to the next item.

This is heavyweight reporting? And why does the BBC think it worthwhile to send an economics reporter abroad to cover demonstrators being teargassed when they have a longstanding reporter based in Athens in Malcolm Brabant?

Maybe Helen Boaden would say it is etiquette that programmers should be allowed to waste our money this way. Mason could have done a better piece from the studio.

Richard is right that The Guardian is giving Greece the sort of prominence it deserves. But they can't stop themselves snootily referring to

anti-bailout populists making big gains in Finland and the Netherlands.

Don't get bogged down in the state of French banks' balance sheets. We truly just don't know. Watch Athens.

Surely the Greek government will disintegrate within a month, if not a week. They have a (falling) majority of four, and the WSJ reports that a forthcoming cabinet reshuffle

is likely to claim the head of Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, the architect of the austerity measures who is widely respected by European officials but has become a key target of Greeks' ire....

The biggest gap in [Greece's] finances has opened up because private investors have refused to buy new Greek government bonds at interest rates the government can afford.

We can be sure that Greece has no contingency plans ready, and in any case there would be no government able to implement them.

Those vulgar populists will be able to say, We told you so ... and by the way how much of our money have you chucked away on the feckless Greeks?

The world does not owe Greece a living.