BBC Complaints: The link you need!

Wednesday 24 February 2010

EUROCRATS BEWARE!

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Here's a headline on the BBC News website:

Tirade against 'damp rag' EU president shocks MEPs

You might not be too surprised to learn that it relates to UKIP, specifically an intervention by the glorious Nigel Farage http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8535121.stm.

'Tirade' is an interesting choice of word, isn't it? The BBC writer hasn't put it in inverted commas. Is it a quote from an MEP? It doesn't seem to be. No, it looks as if the BBC writer has chosen the word himself. It's a word that could be considered technically correct in the context but, like 'harangue' and 'diatribe', has connotations of excessive bitterness/irrationality. (Or is that only because it usually comes in tandem with words like 'drunken' or 'wild'?)

The BBC website features a mere 45 seconds of Mr Farage's 'tirade'. Hopefully the full 7 minutes will pop up on YouTube soon!

2 comments:

  1. Oh dear, so Mr Farage described the EU non-entity Van whoever as having the charisma of a damp rag, and that is a "tirade" in BBC speak.
    But when the late, unlamented labour MP, Tony Banks opined that a Conservative MP looked like a "pig's bladder on a stick" oh my how the BBC rolled around on the floor in hysterical laughter.
    There are times that I realy despise the BBC and everything it purports to stand for.

    Andy C

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  2. And Tony Banks' description of William Hague as a "foetus". That had us rolling in the aisles, especially women who have suffered a miscarriage.
    Craig, the full tirade is on Youtube now and is quite magnificent !

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