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Page 3 Profile: Michael Buerk, journalist

 

Oliver Duggan
Monday 31 December 2012 10:55 GMT
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The award-winning journalist?

That's him. For decades he has been a towering figure within the BBC. But yesterday Michael Buerk turned his journalistic ire on the corporation itself, launching a blistering attack in the Mail on Sunday on what he sees as their sub-par coverage of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Singling out their conduct during a lacklustre presentation of the rainy river pageant, he slammed BBC presenters as "cringingly inept".

Did he pull any punches?

Nope. Buerk, who began his career with the BBC News as a reporter in 1973, explained that he was so ashamed of his employer that he would have wept had he not been so angry.

And did he name names?

Not exactly, but this latest attack clearly referenced the capabilities of Tess Daly, who took a break from co-hosting Strictly Come Dancing to assist in the BBC's Jubilee coverage. He wrote: "The Dunkirk Little Ships, the most evocative reminders of this country's bravest hour, were ignored so that a pneumatic bird-brain from Strictly Come Dancing could talk to transvestites in Battersea Park."

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