The quality of writing on the BBC News website

[Icehaven]

A government spokesman said HS2 would continue because and form a vital part of the UK's future infrastructure.

Because because because because becaaaaaause, because of the terrible writing they does.

[Captain Z]

In fairness , that might as well be the verbatim quote given both the state of the government and pointlessness of HS2.

[idunnosomename]

And I say, hey-ey-ey
Hey-ey-ey
I said Hey

what's going on?

[BlodwynPig]

Dross, from the man utd 9-0 match report

With Bednarek among the scorers after turning Rashford's cross into his own net for the third, and one of those marginal video assistant referee offside decisions that took away the goal Che Adams thought he had scored at the start of the second half, it really was one of those nights best erased from the memory completely.

[Icehaven]

Not the website but there was just an article at the end of the 6 o'clock news about a bunch of middle class white* women who all live on the same street in Bristol (of course) and have all got pregnant within a few months of each other. What the fuck is that doing on the national news? I'm not pretending all news outlets are or should be serious news only but this was one of the main national daily news bulletins, it was bizarre. Must have a pal at the BBC trying to help push their social media profiles or something.


*I mention these details only because, to put it bluntly, if there were several significantly less privileged women living on the same street who all got pregnant around the same time, I'm not sure whoever selects the stories would deem it newsworthy.

[RDRR]

tempting to give them a bit of leeway on livetext, but this was twice in one game

(the penalty was for chelsea against spurs. dier is spurs' defender, mendy is chelsea's goalkeeper)

[bgmnts]

N'Golo Kane gets turned by Lucas Moura and swipes the Spurs man out

.

[BlodwynPig]

.

After Newton Heath's tremendous 9 - 0 victory over St. Mary Y.M.A. the other day, do you think Matt Busby's team can win the title?

[bgmnts]

Hehe

[touchingcloth]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56275888

In a clip of Oprah Winfrey's interview with the couple, Meghan had been asked how she felt about the palace hearing her "speak your truth today".

[Captain Z]

[dissolute ocelot]

In a clip of Oprah Winfrey's interview with the couple, Meghan had been asked how she felt about the palace hearing her "speak your truth today".

Isn't that basically just accusing her of lying?

[evilcommiedictator]

Headline is now changed, on twitter it is:

"Teenage girl headbutts man after being grabbed on path"

Headline is now

"Teenage girl fights off man who grabbed her on path"

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-56386175

[Buelligan]

Yesterday, on the BBC news site, UK page, we had headline - Sarah Everard: What went wrong at the Clapham vigil? 

Sub - Maintaining public order at protests is one of the hardest jobs in modern policing.

Not like the BBC's making excuses for the police or anything.

[BlodwynPig]

Headline is now changed, on twitter it is:

"Teenage girl headbutts man after being grabbed on path"

Headline is now

"Teenage girl fights off man who grabbed her on path"

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-56386175

Why are they using a massive photo of a different girl in the story?

[BlodwynPig]

Yesterday, on the BBC news site, UK page, we had headline - Sarah Everard: What went wrong at the Clapham vigil? 

Sub - Maintaining public order at protests is one of the hardest jobs in modern policing.

Not like the BBC's making excuses for the police or anything.

Those BBC 'explainers' (and those used by other media outlets' are one of the most nefarious developments in media. Horrible, disgusting shit for cunts. "This is what normal, sensible, forensic people should think"

DIE BBC DIE!!!!!!!!!!!

[BlodwynPig]

I have an inherent mistrust of all BBC articles, especially these "personal stories" ones they pump out for the emotional to gawp at.

Take this one...pretty basic writing, nothing to complain about too much, but the story itself seems made up or exaggerated or at best partially told

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/ee6ed923-e00e-445b-8a98-7b9917178e30?xtor=CS8-1000-%5BPromo_Box%5D-%5BSport_Promo%5D-%5BSport_Promo%5D-%5BPS_BBC_THREE~C~f6b95f7d-4c13-47f3-a038-2cf450dd7ea8~A_PupilReferralUnitsArticle%5D

2

4-year-old Louise* travelled to Ghana in October using a fake negative Covid-19 test certificate – the documentation some countries require to prove you don't have the virus and are fit to fly before you leave.

OK, understand this...seems a bit odd, but I get what you are trying to say BBC - othering those bongo bongo land countries (shame the UK was not following suit with its commonwealth cousins).

Ghana is one of those countries and Louise says she needed to travel there for work and couldn't afford the cost of the test. They can cost between £100 to £300, so she looked into getting a fake certificate.

WHAT? She couldn't afford a test but could afford the flight? OK, work might have paid for the flight, but if work required her to travel they would have also, surely, stumped up for the test - the rights of the employee? The word 'can' in that last sentence also suggests that the test may not be in that price range. If it was at the lower end, surely Louise could afford it unless she's on a zero hours contract or has extreme financial difficulties. Here is where more information would be useful to understand the situation, otherwise my sceptic brain switches on.

"I just asked people I knew, 'who does photoshop?' I asked my friends to see their Covid tests just to get a structure of what the certificate looks like and then had someone make one for me."

Now, this is where it gets into the realms of sixth form journalism. This is pulp novel level shite. Could she not have had her friends stump up the cash for a test and she could repay them over time, 100 quid, 20 quid from each friend, paid off over 5 months?

Blodwyn's razor says FAKE NEWS

*Not her real name obvs. Many of their stories occlude the ability to check for veracity (not saying here that her real name should have been used, talking more generally).

[Paul Calf]

I know it's very much splidding hairs, but that story is under the url bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire- when it's clearly in Derby[shire]. I know it's a tiny grievance, and might look like point-missing, but why get these small things wrong when they're so easy to get right?

[idunnosomename]

Its in the middle somewhere. Coal and shoes or some shit. We're not taking Brixton and Vauxhall here!!!

[Fambo Number Mive]

BBC runs pro-gambling story (some bloke won £250k on a £5 bet) on the front page, a lot higher than their story about someone losing over £50,000 gambling.

[RDRR]

sweet, congrats

[turnstyle]

What about when they use photos that the subject of the article has sent in themselves? I say that is just not cricket. I don't want to see a photo that someone has spent hours antagonizing over choosing, with 3 filters and perfect make up. I want yer classic 'subject looking miserable' shot, taken by a regional photographer who has been dispatched to document a woman who found a dog egg in her Cheerios. 

[EOLAN]

Not necessarily on the BBC website; but just caught the headlines after Line of Duty last night on News at Ten.

The second lead was that despite vaccinations "Masks and social distance may be here for some time". I mean some time; is literally just some time. May as well have said some things some where will be doing some things at some time.

[dissolute ocelot]

What about when they use photos that the subject of the article has sent in themselves? I say that is just not cricket. I don't want to see a photo that someone has spent hours antagonizing over choosing, with 3 filters and perfect make up. I want yer classic 'subject looking miserable' shot, taken by a regional photographer who has been dispatched to document a woman who found a dog egg in her Cheerios.

Don't they pull them all off social media these days? I've no idea how it works, whether they pick the sauciest shot from their profile and distribute it, or the press just go through their Instagram.

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

Can't blame the BBC for this one, but with their mission to inform and educate they should definitely be pointing the spelling mistake out in a 1-minute video annotated at primary school level.

[Pseudopath]

In today's BBC One O'Clock News headlines:



Fuck's sake.

[Icehaven]

What about when they use photos that the subject of the article has sent in themselves? I say that is just not cricket. I don't want to see a photo that someone has spent hours antagonizing over choosing, with 3 filters and perfect make up. I want yer classic 'subject looking miserable' shot, taken by a regional photographer who has been dispatched to document a woman who found a dog egg in her Cheerios.

There was a story on either the BBC or Guardian site the other day about domestic abuse related suicide focussing on a young woman who'd killed herself after suffering an abusive partner, and included an interview with her sister to whom she'd been very close. The photo they used of the two of them together clearly had several of those beauty filters on that make your eyes look big and shiny and your skin tone better etc., and the reactionary prude in me just immediately thought 'Is that appropriate?' I mean it probably is, her sister might have chosen it and maybe it's her favourite picture of them or something but it just seemed, I dunno, a bit odd and cartoony for the article. I guess it's just so normal now. I went out for a drink with two colleagues a while back, and one who was about 30 took quite a few photos on her phone and sent them to us on WhatsApp afterwards. Every single one had filters on, either beauty ones or the daft dog-ears-and-sunglasses type ones, it was bizarre. Real faces much be such a disappointment to these people. 

[Buelligan]

I don't think you're being weird at all.  It's just another way to reminding people that they're shit and should hide themselves, keep their heads down, unless they can afford treatment for their embarrassing realness.  We can't help it, we were born that way. 

[bgmnts]

That's exactly why I highlight the ugly.

[Buelligan]

Yep.  I know and you do it very well.