Kelvin MacKenzie kicked off his newspaper commentary slot on Sky News this morning by saying:
"Bizarrely, only The Guardian, could think that with us trying to save £84bn over next four years, the most important thing is that BBC are going to have a 16% budget cut."
Yes, in splashing the story, The Guardian was the only paper to recognise the importance of the BBC having its licence fee frozen for six years and assuming responsibility for funding the World Service.
Few others did. The Financial Times carried a page one story, while the Daily Telegraph and The Times published only front page cross-refs.
Neither the Telegraph, here, nor The Times, here, nor even The Independent, here, thought the story merited much space.
None of them carried leading articles or commentaries by columnists (though the story did break late in the day).
The Daily Mail's page 4 news story was very straight, eschewing any hint of glee following its long-term assault on the corporation.
The Sun was restrained, carrying a short lead on page 2. The Daily Express and Daily Mirror didn't seem think it worthy of big headlines.
So, with the comprehensive spending review bound to dominate tomorrow's papers, the BBC has suffered a reverse that - with the singular exception of The Guardian - will apparently engender little comment.
For the anti-BBC press alliance - Mail and Sun and, to an extent, the Telegraph - it is job done, of course. The BBC has suffered a significant budget cut that would have been unthinkable only a couple of years ago.
