A little bit. But to be honest, it was more that the BBC simply pays very badly, and Al Jazeera found it extremely easy to recruit whomever they wanted at the BBC by giving people nearer retirement a decent paycheck and a bumper pension.

Pays who badly, because it's quite common in the UK to criticise the BBC for seemingly overpaying presenters.

Perhaps everybody except a few top presenters?

I'm speculating based on experience where I live: When contract negotiations in the public sector comes up, the finance ministry makes a point of having its loyal economic affairs journalists and pundits point out how the top paying position at, say, some port authority is almost as high as the prime minister's. But they neglect to mention that 99.975% of employees make a lot less then that; and it was a one-time situation where the guy worked extra overtime; and that they also counted employer taxes rather than what the employee gets etc. etc.

Common /= stupid. The BBC pay very badly for presenters too, but especially for anything below that.

The British press is a big fan of misrepresentation.

Pays reporters on the ground badly.

No, that was al Thani wanting to make little Qatar the media giant of the ME and the Beeb probably took advantage of.

Yesterday I saw the BBC with the “Brussels Chief” of Politico as the foreign correspondent on some EU issue... we are getting news from the dregs now.