Katie claws Kate

They have been derided as the overpaid airheads of news broadcasting.

But now Katie Derham has struck back on behalf of the young and pretty newsreaders who have come in for so much criticism from TV veterans such as Michael Buerk, John Humphrys, Jon Snow and - most recently - Kate Adie.

Miss Derham - who earns £120,000 a year - said she and her kind were trained professionals, and if they weren't up to scratch the news would be 'c**p'.

' If Kate Adie had been offered the job she would have probably taken it as well,' she said. 'It's nonsense, isn't it?

'The last time this argument went back and forth was when Michael Buerk was sounding off about it, joining with Andrew Marr and John Humphrys, saying we newscasters are all absolute airheads who just get paid too much just to wear nice clothes.

'It's an easy line but it is selfevidently rubbish.'

Miss Derham added: 'With rolling news coverage nowadays you have to be on air constantly - and it is the overpaid airheads in the nice suits who have to hold everything together. We do have to

think on our feet and we do have to have journalistic training, and professionalism, and common sense - because otherwise the product would be c**p and we would be taken off the air.'

Miss Derham, 34, spoke out after the latest attack on newsreaders by war correspondent Kate Adie, 60, who said: 'There is a future for us all when we decide to do absolutely nothing but read autocues.

'There are many elements to news. It enriches your knowledge of the world. It informs you - and it perhaps entertains you a bit.

'Well, the newsreader does, you can always discuss what you think of them. It is huge entertainment when they are actually paid money for sitting and actually reading autocues.'

Earlier in the year, John Humphrys claimed 'you don't need a brain' to present the news while Michael Buerk, a former presenter of the Ten O'Clock News, said: 'If you can read out loud, you can do it.'

Last month, Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow said he was concerned at the lack of journalistic experience of some newsreaders.