The BBC News site and its wondrous use of English

[spikey]

One of the simple pleasures in my life is to marvel at the constant mangling of the English language by BBC News website copywriters.  Today we have a particularly fine example of the genre, which I feel compelled to share ...

 

The heading of the story is "Trump ordered to remove envoy in Ukraine in 2018 - video", and the first sentence starts with "President Donald Trump in 2018 ordered the removal of the US Ambassador to Ukraine ..."

 

 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

We can look forward to 'BBC licence fee decriminalised by Government for non payment'.

[hayfield]

4 nights a week I work late and listen to radio 5, the amount of so called educated guests who just cannot speak the queens english is quite high, quite often the best speakers are those whose first language is not English. I can think of one who is on weekly and was a teacher is quite happy to converse in what can possibly be said to be a south London pronunciation of many words. I just hope English was not their subject. Having said this I do quite often agree with them

 

I think the BBC is too concerned to be seen as politically, culturally and gender correct to be too worried about how things are said or written. Forget about the output, I get the feeling its more important to be seen as being over inclusive. To the point I sometimes wonder if employing the best candidate been abolished ? Or I am just not with it anymore   

[hayfield]

3 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

We can look forward to 'BBC licence fee decriminalised by Government for non payment'.

 

The other night two Scottish phone in listeners both stated that they both stopped paying their license fee years ago, more fool the BBC for allowing them on the phone in

 

The next question is how many people do actually pay their licence fee ? with so many relying on food banks, I doubt if they ever pay and I expect many who move home frequently do likewise, just people like ourselves who pay up without a fuss and are also easy to take to court.

 

Another point is do migrants/ foreign students etc actually know they need a licence ? It was a case that when selling a new TV you had to give the BBC the buyers address, I doubt if that still happens

[Steamport Southport]

40 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

The other night two Scottish phone in listeners both stated that they both stopped paying their license fee years ago, more fool the BBC for allowing them on the phone in

 

The next question is how many people do actually pay their licence fee ? with so many relying on food banks, I doubt if they ever pay and I expect many who move home frequently do likewise, just people like ourselves who pay up without a fuss and are also easy to take to court.

 

Another point is do migrants/ foreign students etc actually know they need a licence ? It was a case that when selling a new TV you had to give the BBC the buyers address, I doubt if that still happens

 

Yes it does. I bought one a year or so ago. I was also asked when buying a DVD recorder from a different shop.

 

I was constantly getting harassed by them a few years ago as they didn't believe I didn't have a TV. I was mostly working nights and my then girlfriend was hardly ever in either. So no real need for a TV. But I kept getting letters telling me I need a TV licence even though I had sent them the form filled out saying I don't have a TV. When they turned up to check they were actually surprised that I didn't actually have one...

 

 

 

Jason

[TheSignalEngineer]

 

3 hours ago, spikey said:

One of the simple pleasures in my life is to marvel at the constant mangling of the English language by BBC News website copywriters. 

An unfortunate side-effect of the Twit-Face generation.

 

9 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

I was constantly getting harassed by them a few years ago as they didn't believe I didn't have a TV. I was mostly working nights and my then girlfriend was hardly ever in either. So no real need for a TV. But I kept getting letters telling me I need a TV licence even though I had sent them the form filled out saying I don't have a TV. When they turned up to check they were actually surprised that I didn't actually have one...

 

We had the same issue when we had a weekend hideaway some years ago. We were both in pressurised jobs and that house didn't have a phone or TV. There was a visit from the 'enforcers' one time when we had a midweek break. I sohwed them all round the house and we weren't troubled again.

 

[Gwiwer]

I have no objection to the BBC, nor indeed any other broadcaster, presenting us with material spoken in regional accents provided that material is likely to be comprehensible to the very great majority of the audience.  

 

By which I mean it is a Good Thing to acknowledge that British English includes such diverse variants as South London, Liverpudlian and Glaswegian among many others.  Please allow us to celebrate our regional individuality and differences.  I did have a laugh at Japser Carrott (native of Wolverhampton but widely considered a "Brummie") whose act for some time contained an assertion that "People from Birmingham sound stupid".  All in context.  The concept of sounding stupid would be difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law.  

 

I have no problem if my evening news bulletin is read with a Jamaican or Highland twang nor a Welsh lilt.  Provided I can understand what is being said.  There is a time and a place for the likes of Patois, Scots Gaelic and Welsh.  By all means when the audience is intended to be those communities make use of them.  But on the BBC evening news I don't expect to hear " Him-a smoke di sensimilia all day long, Jah man.  Dutty Babylon a-come fi' tek 'im way."  

 

In a drama, documentary or if interviewing actual people who naturally speak that way, that would be absolutely fine by me.  

 

 

[Free At Last]

2 hours ago, hayfield said:

The other night two Scottish phone in listeners both stated that they both stopped paying their license fee years ago, more fool the BBC for allowing them on the phone in

Stephen Nolan show?

 

I was on the local BBC radio phone in a few years ago about me not having or needing a licence as I don't watch Tv when the presenter's side kick tried to catch me out, saying I must be listening to the radio as I am listening to their show. I told her a licence hasn't been needed for having a radio for some years now.

 

Would students have a Tv set when they can watch it all on their phones/tablets now?

Edited January 26, 2020 by Free At Last

[TheSignalEngineer]

4 minutes ago, Free At Last said:

I told her a licence hasn't been needed for having a radio for some years now.

For 49 years next week, since 1st February 1971.

[TheSignalEngineer]

19 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

I have no objection to the BBC, nor indeed any other broadcaster, presenting us with material spoken in regional accents provided that material is likely to be comprehensible to the very great majority of the audience.  

I remember a documentary about a gentleman from the Black Country who had a then-record Pools win. It was shown with translation subtitles

[Gwiwer]

5 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

I remember a documentary about a gentleman from the Black Country who had a then-record Pools win. It was shown with translation subtitles

And again I have no objection to that because it may well help those unfamiliar with a regional accent to understand what is being said.  It is done for the hearing-disabled anyway so to make those subtitles visible for all involves very little effort.  

[melmerby]

3 hours ago, spikey said:

One of the simple pleasures in my life is to marvel at the constant mangling of the English language by BBC News website copywriters.  Today we have a particularly fine example of the genre, which I feel compelled to share ...

 

The heading of the story is "Trump ordered to remove envoy in Ukraine in 2018 - video", and the first sentence starts with "President Donald Trump in 2018 ordered the removal of the US Ambassador to Ukraine ..."

 

 

Unfortunately the quality of staff used on the BBC's text (online & soon to disappear red button) has been steadily going downhill since the government started stealing licence fees for other things, leading the necessity for the Beeb to cut back on many things.

I suspect the people doing these text services are not particularly well qualified in the use of the English language. Better qualifications mean higher pay.

The weather service on the red button has been particularly badly hit and has shown a severe decline in intelligibility in the last few years. Grammar is now particularly poor.

 

IMHO It's all part of successive governments' tactics to bring the once envied BBC to it's knees.

They don't like critical reporting of their activities, each government (red, blue or coalesced) claims they favour the opposition in their news output. Can't be doing much wrong if that's the case.

 

Personally I still find the Beeb's TV & Radio news superior to other outlets. Commercial radio is particularly dire as is a lot of Sky's news coverage, although they do seem to hit the ball with some stories.

[hayfield]

25 minutes ago, Free At Last said:

Stephen Nolan show?

 

I was on the local BBC radio phone in a few years ago about me not having or needing a licence when the presenter's side kick tried to catch me out, saying I must be listening to the radio as I am listening to their show. I told her a licence hasn't been needed for having a radio for some years now.

 

Would students have a Tv set when they can watch it all on their phones/tablets now?

 

Both stated that they cancelled their licences owing to the BBC's coverage of Scottish Nationalism, got the impression both needed one, however the female stated she now qualified for a free one. But I guess many do not have one either through affordability, ignorance or just those who think rules are for others 

[Colin]

Off topic (sorry) but my big beef with the Beeb right now is that they have decided to end the text service (which I personally find very useful) plus the generally well-regarded Victoria Derbyshire prog, all in the name of cost savings. Would that they had decided to axe the banal One Show instead! 

[spikey]

53 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

 Him-a smoke di sensimilia all day long, Jah man.  Dutty Babylon a-come fi' tek 'im way.

 

Quite - as any fule kno.

[57xx]

I'm surprised you found some copy actually written by BBC staff. Many of the "stories" these days seem to consist for "Fred on twitter said: blah blah blah", followed by a redundant picture of the exact same tiwtter post, followed by "Jane on Twitter said: It's so bad, I could have died. I was miles away at the time, but I could have had I actually been there. Someone should be sacked for this!" and again, followed by a picture of the actual post.

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, Free At Last said:

Would students have a Tv set when they can watch it all on their phones/tablets now?

Still need a licence for live TV & iPlayer

[AY Mod]

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Japser Carrott (native of Wolverhampton but widely considered a "Brummie")

 

Carrott? 

 

He was definitely a Brummie, never Black Country or Wulfrunian. He did manage to become a successful Brummie and escape to become a Silhillian, living in Knowle. They'm posh.

[tetsudofan]

Despite owning the house I am now living in, up until 1999 whilst I was living abroad, Mum was living in the house and paying all the utilities etc. including the TV licence. 

 

Upon returning home Mum continued paying the utilities with me paying her my share. This continued for a number of years until Mum went down with dementia and moved into care at which time she took the TV and the TV licence with her. Since then there has been no TV in the house and now that they are talking about getting rid of free TV licences for the over 75's (and I was born in 1945) there will be no TV in the house.

 

The TV people were advised of Mum's move and I told them there was now no TV in the house and since then I get an email from them every couple of years or so asking me to confirm that I still have no TV to which I respond and they reply to me that they have updated this information on their file..... but still always remind me that I will need a licence if I get a TV.

 

Last time this happened a couple of months later I got another letter telling me that I had no TV licence and warning me that they could do a surprise visit and telling me the penalties that I would face if they found that I had a TV. Got out my correspondence file and noted that it had a different reference number so now it looks as though I'm on their system twice. They can sort that out when and if they pay a visit.

 

Should also note that I don't watch TV on the PC and don't watch I-player on the PC since that was banned and have to intention doing so in the future.

 

Regarding local accents have no problems with that except when our local station (Radio Kent) has an announcer from north of the border with a  very heavy accent doing the traffic news. Very confusing...….

 

Keith

[Colin]

26 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

Carrott? 

 

He was definitely a Brummie, never Black Country or Wulfrunian. He did manage to become a successful Brummie and escape to become a Silhillian, living in Knowle. They'm posh.

Wasn’t he (or maybe he still is) a director of Birmingham City FC? With that on his CV he surely isn’t from Wolverhampton!

[spikey]

1 hour ago, 57xx said:

... followed by "Jane on Twitter said: It's so bad, I could have died ...

 No no no.  Surely it would be "I could of died"?

[Sidecar Racer]

2 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

I remember a documentary about a gentleman from the Black Country who had a then-record Pools win. It was shown with translation subtitles

 

Even subtitles are a challenge for this .

 

 

[57xx]

12 minutes ago, spikey said:

 No no no.  Surely it would be "I could of died"?

 

Yes, you are correct lol

[TheSignalEngineer]

2 hours ago, Colin said:

Off topic (sorry) but my big beef with the Beeb right now is that they have decided to end the text service (which I personally find very useful) plus the generally well-regarded Victoria Derbyshire prog, all in the name of cost savings. Would that they had decided to axe the banal One Show instead! 

Or that boring Breakfast programme. I time myself by the items that are on. Oh, they've just started talking about the NHS or obesity or similar, must be 0811 or thereabouts. It's a wonder they're not still using Frank Bough's cardigan. Just need a slot to keep Carol on for the weather.

[Clive Mortimore]

Wow my railway modelling has improved reading this.