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Friday 24 August 2012

Reporting the words of liars


from savagechickens.com

When the dear old BBC reports a speech by Dave, Nick or Ed, they never include any kind of sanity warning do they? In a comedy sketch show it might be different, but BBC news readers and reporters always fail to remind us how habitually dishonest these creeps are.

We’re so inured to it that we tend not to notice the implied approval every time it happens. Yet with digital technology it would be so easy to put a warning symbol on the screen every time one of these guys opens his lying mouth. Or any one of the others for that matter. There are as we know, plenty of them. 

A warning might be something like a subtitle :-

  • Warning – nonsense zone.
  • Politics and sanity don’t mix.
  • Known pillock.
  • Speaks Moron fluently.

Okay, it’s not an entirely serious point, but there’s a reason why not isn't there? We have an exceedingly strong and unhealthy tendency towards endemic equivocation and the BBC is the leader of the pack by a long, long way. We know political life is riddled with liars and charlatans. They make promises, often by implication, with no intention of keeping them.

They aren’t necessarily evil people, although they may be, but absurdly over-ambitious and inclined to talk purely for effect or as their advisers dictate. So maybe the BBC could bring itself to say what we all know to be the case. Surely it would be healthier – politically.

As things stand the BBC seems to be part of it – the lying I mean. There are after all, no innocent bystanders in this game.

8 comments:

Sam Vega said...

I agree that the BBC is implicated as an institution, but would you agree that certain formats and certain individuals within the BBC serve to expose the lies?

Paxman has had some glorious moments, for example. And there are those little blips where the truth slips in by default. Brown sounding off about the "bigot" while still wearing the mic., or Blair getting confronted by the angry woman outside the hospital, for example. A politician openly lying is news, after all.

We may not be told the truth, but we are often told enough to know that people are habitually lying...

Anonymous said...

Slightly off topic, but trawling Urban Dictionary I came across a word for 'going for a poo' - "birthing a politician". So, just going to "birth a politician".

James Higham said...

Okay, it’s not an entirely serious point, but there’s a reason why not isn't there?

Think it's an entirely serious point.

A K Haart said...

Sam - I take your point about Paxman, but I think he's used as a boundary where we might expect to find the BBC norm. HIGNFY sets another boundary.

BTW I've just started "If on a winter's night a traveller".

Roger - I like that - must use it!

A K Haart said...

James - it is, but we have to tackle it from all angles.

Demetrius said...

Garbage in, garbage out.

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

There is a solution to Beeboil leftyism; just hear the words and believe the opposite!

Works every time.

Like that Epiphany Flanders woman; never believe a word she says! As for Splick Robinson, well, don't even bother to hear the words. And then there's Whole-lotta-love Peston to make you think there's life at the end of the tunnel, because he's just so negative.

A K Haart said...

Demetrius - but it's surely time to shake it all about!

Scrobs - I've given up on the Beeb though, only use it as material for blog posts!