One could create a blog dedicated to the BBC’s disfigurement of the English language, but it wouldn’t make one happy.
However, I have to comment on language + on this occasion.
First up there’s this absurd article in praise of Israel’s campaigning Labour leader. Can someone, anyone, find a shred of light between the writer’s gabbing mouth and the Labour candidate’s posterior? Thought not. Well, a quote mark or two maybe, or a ‘likes to be seen’ perhaps. He has to come up for breath I suppose.
Anyway, to the language. I’ll quote it because no doubt some Beeboid will tidy it up once we’ve blogged about it, but it’s classy:
‘Born in Morocco, Mr Peretz is the first time non-European Jew has to head the Labour party.’
Uh. Caution! Wordsmith at work!
However, language is not the Min Truth’s strong point, it seems. Or maybe they know only too well on occasions what they’re doing to language. Take the BBC’s use of three words in referring to the Kember rescue where one would do- the one I’ve used. Can you guess which one is lowest in the pecking order, too? The BBC use ‘free’ and ‘release’ and ‘rescue’ as though they were fully interchangeable. I’d say, with dictionary in hand, that ‘rescue’ implies active intervention from outside, ‘free’ is neutral and can imply either the voluntary release of a prisoner or his/her release following intervention, while ‘release’ implies that those with power over the prisoner decided upon their release (clearly this is not appropriate). Whatever quibbles we might make, clearly ‘rescue’ is the appropriate word here, and the only really appropriate word. One further point: the state of Kember’s family’s education or their manners, or their politics etc., is none of the BBC’s business in deciding the right language to use to describe a news event.
Maybe that’s how they can reason that Moazzam Begg has something worthwhile (scroll to bottom) to say about the Kember rescue. He’s the former Guantanamo guy who’s becoming an accepted face of the jihad for the BBC. He ‘pleaded’ in December to the people he has absolutely no connection to or affinity with for Kember’s release, but Kember wasn’t released, he was rescued. So nil points to Begg and minus points to the BBC.
Btw, Kember’s a bit of a sad excuse isn’t he? But, ah, yes, that’s a bit off topic I suppose…