Radio 4 voices

The Sunday Times did a reader's poll last week asking: Should more BBC presenters have regional accents? The results were 60% saying 'No' and 40% saying 'Yes'. It's an interesting questions, especially as far as newsreaders go. I wouldn't mind, just as long as they are as easy to understand and not distracting. 

Accents can be distracting, as I was only thinking yesterday when listening to the Radio 4 news at 8pm read by Viji Alles. Yes, he's got a lovely voice but you cannot but get distracted by it sometimes:

Reports in the US say the American actress Betty White has died aged 99. She was best known for her Emmy Award-winning rawls on the television sitcoms The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyle-y More shore. 

Of Language and Lod

Rina Shnerb

BBC Watch takes apart a report about the murder of a 17 year old Israeli girl by Palestinian terrorists on Saturday's Midnight News on Radio 4, criticising several aspects of it: 

(1) The use of 'politically partisan language' - "militant", "settlement", "occupied West Bank" and "protests". 

(I'm assuming BBC Watch would prefer "terrorist", "village", "Judea and Samaria" and "violent riots"). 

(2) The 'downplaying' of the gravity of the attack which killed the girl while she was out hiking with her family.  The BBC's Yolande Knell said, "Unusually, a homemade bomb is said to have been used" whereas The Times of Israel says, "Channel 12 quoted unnamed officials as saying that the size and complexity of the device indicated that one of the major terror groups was behind the attack" and Channel 13’s military correspondent says that the IED weighed between three and four kilos and contained a large amount of shrapnel, adding that the incident was “planned and organised – and not a spontaneous or improvised terror attack”. 

(If the Israeli voices are correct there, then the BBC appears to have seriously mischaracterised the nature of the device used). 

(3) Yolande Knell's 'choice' to use the Arabic pronunciation of the name of the Israeli city of Lod. She pronounced it 'Lud'. 

(What a strange thing to do on Yolande's part! She unquestionably did pronounce it in the Arabic version 'Lud' rather than the Hebrew version 'Lod'. Is that another BBC guideline or her own choice?) 

BBC Watch is right to claim that the language used was deliberately chosen and also right that the chosen words cannot but shape how the listener reacts to the story. 

The geographical words used in point (1) are those recommended by the BBC's own editorial guidelines and commit the BBC to a particular line on the politics of that geography (which you may agree or disagree with), and the BBC's refusal to use words like "terrorist" and "riot" are a longstanding BBC policy to try not to be 'judgmental' in their language. Here such language is more favourable to the Palestinians than the Israelis, softening the harshness of the Palestinians and hardening the image of the 'occupying' Israelis. 

Quite why Yolande Knell gave a central Israeli city an Arabic pronunciation though remains beyond me. Was she being deliberately provocative?

As an aside, here's a fascinating YouTube video about the beautiful 19th Century rebuild of the Church of St. George in Lod - a church the city's Muslim overlords (even Saladin) kept on knocking down:

Labels

Those who've complained about the BBC using the term 'far-right' to describe everyone taking part in the anti-immigration protests in the German city of Chemnitz - from neo-Nazis to supporters of AfD and Pegida and ordinary people - might still have been surprised at tonight's Radio 4 news bulletin at 10 o'clock as it went even further in its opening headlines:

Thousands of German neo-Nazis have protested against immigrants in a city that's seen a wave of racist violence. 

The protest tonight, apparently some 4,500-strong, was led by AfD and Pegida, who may (arguably) be termed 'far-right' but surely they can't be described as 'neo-Nazi', can they? So what's with "Thousands of German neo-Nazis have protested" here?

A Tale of Two News Items

Lifted from the latest Open Thread:

And here's a transcript of that 7pm bulletin which demonstrates the contrast in treatment between the two news stories:

A 19 year old who plotted to bomb an Elton John concert in London last year has been given a life sentence with a minimum term of 16 and a half years. Haroon Syed was caught by undercover officers as he attempted to get hold of weapons and explosives on the internet. A man from Sunderland has been jailed for 15 months after admitting pulling a niqab off a woman's face and racially abusing her. Newcastle Crown Court heard that Peter Scotter,  who's 56, called her 'a stupid Muslim'. Fiona Trott was in court. "The assault happened one year ago when the woman, who was 29, was shopping with her husband and nine-year-old son. CCTV footage shows Peter Scotter grabbing her veil, which almost pulled her to the ground. Witnesses heard him shout, 'You're in our country now.' The court heard the assault has made the woman afraid to go out. Scotter's barrister said it was perhaps no coincidence it happened shortly after the Brexit referendum. The judge said it was 'appalling abusive behaviour grounded in religious bigotry'".

And it wasn't that the jailing of Scotter was breaking news at that time. Both Scotter and Syed had been sentenced mid-afternoon.

Sunday headlines

I listened to the 7 o'clock news bulletin before Sunday after having looked at Sky News's invaluable gallery of the British newspaper front pages. 

I'll list what stories the BBC chose to report after outlining the stories featured by the UK papers today.

The Observer led with 'Miliband's stark warning: climate change an issue of national security', 'Labour to set record for female MPs' and 'Midlands priest faces genocide probe'.

The Independent on Sunday led with 'NHS chief orders urgent child death review'.

The Sunday People led on the same story as the Independent on Sunday - 'Now for the truth: Sunday People wins inquiry into the scandal-hit hospital where six children died'.

The Sunday Times led with '250 jihadis spark UK terror alert',along with 'Labour candidate tells Miliband to 'hug a banker'', 'Jets send maydays over London', 'Bread to contain folic acid' and 'Strip clubs get Whitehall cash'.

The Mail on Sunday led with 'Victims of the Valentine tempest' and the Sunday Express with 'Darkest Day of the Storms'.

The Sunday Telegraph led with 'Doctors on £3,000 per shift', 'Under water, yet flood-hit areas are still ear-marked for new homes', 'Record number of foreign criminals cannot be deported from Britain', 

And the Sun on Sunday led with 'I waited all my life for you' (Simon Cowell's first words to his baby), while the Daily Star on Sunday led with 'Golden Bawls' (Simon Cowell and Lizzy Yarnold).

BBC Radio 4's 7 o'clock news bulletin had five stories:

1. The floods

2. Ed Miliband's warning over climate change

3. Research from America claiming that air currents are changing due to man-made climate change

4. Alex Salmond accusing the UK government of bullying

5. Whether 12 Days a Slave or Gravity will come out on top at the Baftas 

Except for the floods, which is the inevitable lead story, items 2-5 are typical BBC choices for 'What is the story?', aren't they?