ACCORDING to reports, a woman TV newsreader currently paid £250,000 a year is to join Channel 5 on a salary of £500,000.

How, in the name of common sense, can such obscene payments be justified?

We now live in an age of totally false values. Energy and initiative are, in many cases, stifled while mediocrity is rewarded.

Substance is in short supply and "image" is, or appears to be, everything.

I would not care if a combination of Frankenstein's monster, Quasimodo or Old Mother Shipton read the news as long as they were literate and coherent.

Also, why does it often take two people to perform this relatively mundane task for some 30 minutes?

Many years ago, Sir Jimmy Savile said that anyone lucky enough to get a regular spot on TV could compare themselves to being given a key to Fort Knox. On this scale of remuneration, they should throw in the keys to the Bank of England.

J FIELDING (Mr), St Cecilia Street, Great Harwood.