BBC journalists a 'harried and miserable bunch'

Nick Cohen gives the BBC a battering in his Observer column today.
He argues: "The corporation should be becoming the most important news institution not merely in Britain but the world. The technological changes that are wrecking the profitability of newspapers and commercial TV in all advanced countries mean that many will think hard before sending a reporter to cover the next coup in Thailand. The BBC, whose £3bn income is guaranteed by the state, should have no comparable worries.
"Yet far from looking like confident men and women ready to fill the gaps left by their retreating competitors, BBC journalists are a harried and miserable bunch."
Cohen argues that editorial jobs are being cut on flagship current affairs programmes like Today and Newsnight while the BBC is pouring millions into developing online sites and iPlayer. He claims: "The BBC is so uninterested in content that it is sacking its content providers or journalists as we used to call them. The paradox of the BBC's strategy is that the more it spends on expanding into cyberspace the less it has to say."
Cohen concludes: "In this time of upheaval, the BBC has a public duty to invest and broadcast the journalism that others cannot afford. It is failing spectacularly to live up to its responsibilities."