HMMMMMmmm

[Malcolm]

Has anyone seen this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8102971.stm

Malcolm

[Flamingo]

I didn't check all the pictures but at least one is miscaptioned. Typical BBC sloppiness - try counting how many spelling mistakes you can spot even on high-profile programmes like their main news bulletins. The junction for Bordon was not Farnham but Bentley. It has been rumoured here locally that the branch is to be reopened if a proposed new 'Eco Town' ( whatever that may be) is built at Bordon when the army pulls out in a few years time. If this branch is reopened it might be at the expense of the Alton line. Farnham to Alton was singled in about 1985 and still remains single track with a passing loop at Bentley.

[richard]

"Typical BBC sloppiness": They make some mistakes but usually a lot better than the competition (TV or print).

I noticed with this big news story that it was the TOCs asking for them to be opened. Of course they'd like new lines to be opened! Has anyone suggested who would pay for these openings?


Richard

[52A]

Obviously the tax payer, but hang on, are the railways not privatised? Why ask the tax payer?

[Flamingo]

"Typical BBC sloppiness": They make some mistakes but usually a lot better than the competition (TV or print).

Richard

Well, considering the huge sums of money that the UK spends on education every year I think the BBC's viewers are entitled to expect better. The sort of thing I was referring to is spelling mistakes on maps used in TV news bulletins and for captions such as names. And misplaced apostrophes are a universal fact of life these days. Have the grammar and spellchecking facilities in word processing programs gone out of fashion? I agree the print media are not much better.

It's probably my age showing through here. Many people probably don't even recognise the kinds of errors that seem to hit me in the face. I went to school when no-one, not even those who came bottom of the class every term, left unable to read, write and speak properly. My brother calls me a dinosaur and he's probably right. Heaven help the English language though.

[52A]

If you think the TV is bad you should have a look at the utter sloppiness on CEFAX!

[Flamingo]

Deplorable I agree, but at least that medium has a much lower profile than TV news bulletins or printed newspapers. And perhaps only to be expected - the material is probably written by people of the same generation(s) who we already cannot spell properly.

What is also unacceptable is the tendency to overlook such mistakes : the 'we know what you are trying to say, so actually saying it properly doesn't matter' excuse that is regularly trotted out by teachers.

[richard]

Well over here, the BBC is radio or the website. I see a lot of people with pedantic complaints about the website - eg. a stock picture of a train that is the wrong type of unit (dmu vs emu) for a story that isn't actually about the train!

The competition is CNN or Fox for TV. Many people question whether CNN is a new agency any more (even at CNN's height, the BBC had more international news bureaus than the CNN had international reporters), and Fox has a very definite political slant. Think of a typical Fleet Street paper but much more slanted. When errors are made, they are always in the same direction, that type of thing.

Richard

[Bill Bedford]

Well, considering the huge sums of money that the UK spends on education every year I think the BBC's viewers are entitled to expect better. The sort of thing I was referring to is spelling mistakes on maps used in TV news bulletins and for captions such as names. And misplaced apostrophes are a universal fact of life these days.

I think it was Mark Twain who said "It's a man of poor intellect who can think of only one way to spell a word."

[hq1hitchin]

[quote="Bill Bedford
I think it was Mark Twain who said "It's a man of poor intellect who can think of only one way to spell a word."[/quote]

Would that be the Mark Twain who worked as a pattern maker in the Brass Shop in Swindon Factory knocking out the nameplates for broad gauge engines? Lived in Highworth, I think ho ho

[Bill Bedford]

Would that be the Mark Twain who worked as a pattern maker in the Brass Shop in Swindon Factory knocking out the nameplates for broad gauge engines? Lived in Highworth, I think ho ho

GWR spelling was always somewhat eccentric, eg shew, dreadnaught etc.

[hq1hitchin]

Would that be the Mark Twain who worked as a pattern maker in the Brass Shop in Swindon Factory knocking out the nameplates for broad gauge engines? Lived in Highworth, I think ho ho

GWR spelling was always somewhat eccentric, eg shew, dreadnaught etc.

Quite so, although I had in mind Goliah for Goliath and Otho for Otto, Pices for Pisces. Near misses, I suppose brought about by miscommunication somewhere along the line but nobody seemed to mind too much....

[Flamingo]

The LNER got names wrong too, didn't one of the K4s have to be renamed because the spelling was wrong? And one of the Glen class too?

[52D]

Knlght of the Thistle or Knight of Thistle And MacCaillin Mor were two locos that have been argued about previously on these pages. I cant remember what topic they were on.
We needed to call in the services of the York Herald to arbitrate on a naming decision.
Just checked through search facility result below.

Forum LNER Locomotives Topic knight of (the) thistle?

[Ferrybridge Flyer]

Pismrounounciation in the very best Ronnie Barker style!