All the 'news' that's fit to be... 'imprecisely written'

Another phrase to add to a long, and ignoble list...

"From: jeremy.bowen@xxxxxxx
Your complaint has been passed to me. In the diary I was guilty of some imprecise writing. I was certainly not libelling an entire people. But I should have made the meaning of the sentence clearer...'

I am, of course, assuming the author to be accurate about the exchange. It does ring true enough.

I think I'd like my reporters a bit more able to 'make their meaning clearer'.

Well, I do declare

I have tried very hard not to get too caught up on the accusations of BBC bias, being content to focus more on truly shambolic standards of professionalism and/or journalism, but staying in this twilight zone of naive belief is proving a trial.

No one is above a view or affiliation, but for sure if they are wheeled out it should be well known and shared. And I don't just mean Andrew Marr*:

BBBC

Imagine the scene:

-----

Saturday Editorial Meeting, The Andrew Marr Show

'Gordon's tanking all over the place; even his own party is turning on him. We've got a tame Minister booked, but what else can we do for a bit of balance?",

Moments of silence, and then Andrew Marr himself pipes up:

"I know! Was at a dinner bash only last night at Go... at a dinner party, and Mariella said she was free in tomorrow and didn't mind getting up early to rally the troops. How about her?"

Smiles all round.

"Perfect. Blonde celeb with a heart of gold. And she hasn't been on for, well...days!"

-------

Until these pages I had not realised she was also a close, personal friend.

Has it not sunk in with these numpties how such a selection might play? Or do they simply not care?

*Ms Frostrup is a close personal friend of Gordon Brown - she should declare that when trying to defend him in today's newspaper review
Stephen Jones, UK - On the feedback page which, oddly, and not for the first time, is restricted to a few comments but manges one twice.

When the going get's tough, the wimps cry Auntie

LAY OFF LABOUR

Shame there is not more 'on-record' attribution, but hardly surprising.

However, assuming it to be true, I did manage a slight smile at this... as a defence:

'...maybe he did not express himself very well and some people got the wrong end of the stick.’

For a professional communicator of objective stories for a national news broadcaster, I am coming to see how they justify those big bucks at senior level.

Maybe an 'away-day' with a 'consultant' to help improve on those skills? On us, of course.

Flogging a dead, anything, if the money is right

WOSS - THE SIX MILLION WONDER?

I was going to start with 'to be fair', but will simply note that if media outlets ignored the siren call of PR then our airwaves would be a barren place.

However....

As we are on this site, talking about (in the main) just one broadcaster, one has to wonder why we have to pay for a supposedly ad-free entity when almost every aspect can be bought, cheap, merely by a special relationship existing between some London-luvvies in the BBC and their very good chums around town.

I can sort of live (though why I don't know. Shifting tickets for money is no different to flogging anything else for profit) with a plug for a show or book (though it's wearing thin wheeling out a gallon of peroxide under the guise of being 'this month's spokeswoman for..' when in fact all parties really want to do, and do do is ditch the charity quicksmart to get to the goss on the new B-list outing) but when even main news does it you have to wonder.

I can almost set my watch by our Declan having Sir Stuart Rose on with a rack of M&S stuff to flog in the name of something 'business-related'.

I know all the others do it but... repeat after many before me... 'we don't have to pay for them'.

This mythical Charter-thingy seems to be popped through the shredder more than the DG's monthly receipts.

Addendum: BBC Breakfast 17/09 - The above picture captured just a moment too late to have both as book ends holding up their mighty tomes for us to read and rush out and buy.

New day, new weasels, new words

BBBC - 'Truthiness'