Reuters carries a glowing review out of Los Angeles of the new BBC US newscast.

“BBC World News America” is calm, measured and light years more journalistically sophisticated and informative than its domestically bred competition.

Good review aside, actually what’s interesting about this is the involvement of Rome Hartman and what it tells you about the limits of what we do in TV journalism.

Media conspiracy theorists note – a guy who just a year or so ago was producing the Couric Evening News, a broadcast accused by its disgruntled ex-anchor of “dumbing it down, tarting it up”, is now producing the 100% wholewheat BBC alternative that “put the so-called broadcast network evening newscasts to shame.” Yes, exactly the kind of programme that Hartman was delivering until recently.

Has he undergone some kind of Damascene transformation?

No, the answer is that he has traded one set of corporate editorial priorities – aimed at keeping one anchor and six and a half million people happy – for another very different set.

This newscast is not going to challenge the network audiences, actually it is not even going to reach them, but ironically it will probably appeal to exactly the kind of people who already get their news (also out of Washington DC) from a different public service broadcaster.