Sunday 6 January 2019

Language


Breaking news...

The fourth story on the Sky News website tonight is Terrorist behind USS Cole attack killed, says Trump.

And the BBC News website has just reported it too. It's their 11th story, published two minutes ago, under the headline USS Cole bomber died in air strike - Trump

It almost feels like stating the blindingly obvious to point out that the BBC uses very BBC language here, while Sky is less PC. 

The Sky headline, as you'll have seen, calls Jamel Ahmed Mohammed Ali al Badawi a "terrorist" while the BBC's headline merely calls him a "bomber".

And, of course, the first paragraphs of their respective reports follow on in the same vein - though the BBC here changes from "bomber" to "militant" (still, as ever, avoiding the word "terrorist").
Sky: A terrorist behind the attack on the USS Cole has been killed in an airstrike, Donald Trump has confirmed. 
BBC: Jamal al-Badawi, the al-Qaeda militant behind the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, died in a US air strike, President Donald Trump has confirmed.

4 comments:

  1. It seems odd not to use the T word given that the ideology this guy was associated with explicitly states it is there to strike terror in the hearts of those who are its opponents (whether real or perceived).

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    Replies
    1. M.B, It seems that The BBC is also frightened of the 'B' word now that the murder suspect in the tragic stabbing of Lee Pomeroy, violently killed in front of his 14 yr old son during a day out to London, has finally been charged.

      At no time did The BBC mention the suspect's ethnicity as is often the case. But Sky News revealed that the charged murder suspect was in fact a six foot tall 35 yr old Black man.
      For a Corporation so obsessed with ethnicity and diversity it does seem odd that some things are conveniently concealed to share holders (yes... tv licence payers) when it suits them.

      John... N. London.

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    2. Yep, they are very selective about how all the M, B and G words are used.

      Even odder is how they dole out the sympathy. South Americans, Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos for instance don't seem to make even a blip on the BBC's ethnic radar even though they amount to something like 2 billion of the world's population and have very large communities in the UK.

      Strangely you never hear Lenny Henry complaining about the lack of Chinese actors in major TV soaps, dramas and TV ads.

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  2. Don has also copped flak from the TDS seats for the 'claim'.

    Like Brexit, it seldom seems to occur to such folk that leaders often rely on briefings from below.

    But usually a 'win win' once edited for effect.

    ReplyDelete

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