Abstract
The BBC's Mardell begins: "The very senior Conservative asked me with bewilderment. 'Is it true?' Indeed it was true: I'd been appointed the BBC's Europe Editor and shortly would be off to Brussels. He was just about too polite to offer his commiserations, but was clearly bewildered." Mardell believes the BIG story for television news is Europe, but confesses, "There are some fairly obvious problems about covering the European Union... Take the Conservative politician I mentioned earlier. I know that although for pragmatic reasons he wouldn't press for British withdrawal from the EU, he dislikes it intensively and is suspicious of all its works. But here's the rub: that dislike makes him think it is dull and not worth hearing about. It is an odd conjunction. Indeed, a few people have worried that an increased commitment from the BBC to cover Europe will be taken as a sign of Europhilia. I tell them the two events in modern history I would most loved to have covered as a journalist are the rise of Hitler and the Russian revolution. This does not mean I approve of either."
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