Richard Porter has a pop at my review of his new show (in its BBC Four incarnation).

Adrian Monck is wrong about World News Today (News lightweight doesn’t stand a chance, June 4) on a number of counts.

My main criticism was that it’s scheduled in the UK against an almost identical public service programme – Channel 4 News. So, I guess I’m right about that one.

But I am wrong…

He’s wrong about the quality of interviewees … do the EU’s foreign policy chief, Africa’s first Nobel prize winner and one of US politics’ leading speakers on climate change count as interviewees of “bookshelf pundit variety”?

Hmmm. Were they the must-have interviews of the day? The EU’s foreign policy chief…every booker’s prize. Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Prize winner would have been a great interview in 1986, when he got the Nobel Prize for literature (as he once worked for the Beeb he’d probably have obliged). And one of US politics’ leading speakers on climate change? Al Gore? Erm, no – perhaps it’s like Ian Burrell reported in the Indie:

On this particular day, she [Zeinab Badawi] is disappointed as Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, pulls out of an interview on global warming at late notice, though Badawi claims an exclusive in speaking to Pelosi’s colleague, Congressman Ed Markey.

Ed Markey? Richard needs to get out more.

He’s wrong about the role of the BBC correspondents we commission for the programme; he holds it against them that they’re not appearing on other BBC news bulletins, but surely the point is that we’re following a different agenda on BBC4 and BBC World, giving viewers a range and choice?

I don’t hold their non-appearance on other bulletins against them (that’s the job of output editors!), but when you brag about the range of BBC resourcing, don’t be surprised if people question what proportion of that resource (human and material) you actually command.

And he’s wrong to say we can’t compete on big, international stories; of course we can, helped by having access to the world’s largest network of broadcast correspondents.

I look forward to seeing more reporting from Matt Frei, but my point was that World News Today will struggle to out-compete Channel 4 News as the destination of choice for viewers interested in international news. It was a point made by many of the commenters on Richard’s original post.

He seems to have missed all of this in his rush to dismiss a programme that’s only been on the air for a few days.

I love international news. I’ve risked my life to bring it to people and I think it deserves only the best. Not nearly the best. Just the best.