Sniffing the BBC

I could become slightly addicted to Newssniffer. I find it fascinating watching the BBC edit their News website reports.

Following on from the previous post...

The BBC's report today on the violent and deadly invasion of the Spanish island of Melilla by mostly sub-Saharan African adult male 'asylum seekers' via the border fence with the Kingdom of Morocco saw two significant changes, highly revealing of the BBC mind in editing mode: 

The first versions of the headline told the story straight, saying Eighteen dead in mass break-in to Spanish enclave of Melilla. This then changed to Eighteen dead trying to cross into Spanish enclave of Melilla. 

I'm assuming that 'mass break-in' was far too accurate a way of putting it and needed softening into something, so to speak, more 'mostly peaceful'-like. 

Then, as per the Newswatch discussion transcribed in the previous post, the BBC edited the line Spanish officials say several hundred migrants tried to break through into the enclave after cutting fencing to make it read Spanish officials say several hundred people tried to break through into the enclave after cutting fencing.

The BBC really mind their language.