BBC atrocities at 10.00pm

Posted by Deborah Lewis at Thu, 29/10/2009 - 11:29am in Corporate commentary

Were my eyes deceiving me? Could it possibly be true? Should I run for a dictionary? Had I walked through a looking-glass world? Was I just misunderstanding the story?

No, none of the above was true. The lead story on the BBC 10 o’clock news last night was about a “damming report” of deployment of troops and strategic decisions in Afghanistan.

Yes, “damming” with a double m.

I knew our effort in Afghanistan was short of manpower, equipment, good decisions, sometimes belief in the decision-makers.

But were our poor soldiers also short of water?

Or has the BBC sub-title department finally ceded to that inevitable, eroding malady of our era – poor spelling attention?

I suspect the latter. Now I know that this is a little harsh, and that this post is probably littered with more spelling mistakes, literals and grammatical faux pas than the front page of a certain national newspaper.

But some things are sacred and the BBC as a source of authority on that other venerable institution, the English language, is surely one.

If now the news team at the BBC can’t spell – what is next for this redoubtable language?

Tagged with: journalism, BBC