Tuesday 3 December 2013

Another confusing BBC headline


Confusing BBC headline of the day: 
Irish police colluded in IRA murders
Does that mean the Irish police colluded in the murder of IRA members, or does it mean that they colluded with the IRA in murdering other people (of an unspecified nature)?

Sky News's headline is far less ambiguous:
IRA And Irish Police 'Colluded Over Murders'
And ITV News is even clearer:
Irish police 'colluded with IRA over RUC murders' 
You would hope that it wasn't beyond the ability of someone at the BBC News website to write an unambiguous headline.

1 comment:

  1. The BBC doesn't want them to be unambiguous. It takes some skill to write headlines that are deliberately ambiguous and manage to slur those who don't fit their favoured (left-wing, immigrant,anti-British) views.

    'EDL bomb plot' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22033805) was probably their most egregious example this year, referring to the failed attempt by six 'British' Muslim men to murder people attending an EDL rally, but nicely implying that the EDL were the bomb-plotters.

    I guess the BBC might have some internal competition for who can come up with the best ones. It could make a good Christmas game. How about
    'government failed NHS patients' (implying this present government is responsible for the pre-2010 deaths at Stafford, Tameside, Basildon, etc)
    'Tory murder plot' (the 1984 Brighton bomb at the Conservative Party conference)
    'teen sex parties' (more grooming by those 'men')?

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