WHAT BROADCASTERS SAY....AND COULD HAVE SAID

1. BBC man speaking to a man going to Bridgend, Wales to investigate a spate of youthful suicides:

"I wouldn't suspect you could control it." (i.e. stopping or lessening the suicides)

Friday 16th May, 7.55am, Radio 4

Why not expect or think?

OBLIVIOUS = forgetful. It should not be used for 'unaware' or 'unconscious'. You cannot be oblivious of something unless you once knew it. From Latin oblivisci...forget. 'oblivion' is a forgetfulness.

Fowler and other masters of English have inveighed against its misuse, but to no avail. Rotten journalism, particularly over radio and television, has killed the best sense of the word. For that sense one must now use 'forgetful' 'inadvertent', or 'absent-minded'.

'Oblivious' should always take 'of'. Thoses who misuse it usually couple it with 'to' (as did the BBC presenter).

Correct Use: He stared at her now with bloodshot eyes, oblivious of her name that had once been so dear to him.

Misuse: Jenny forgot to tell him of the leak, so he was oblivious to the fact that there was no oil in the engine.

Majority applies only to numbers and it = the greater number.

Late in August on BBC2, 'majority' was misused as follows: "it will be cloudy across the majority of Scotland". This would have been better as "cloudy across most of Scotland". The difference is explained in Partidge's 'Usage and Abusage', which I recommend to the BB College of Journalism.

I also recommend 'The Great Reading Disaster' by Mona McNee and Alice Coleman, particulary for its comments on Rudolf Flesch's books and how one of them has been withheld from publication.

4. METHOD/METHODOLOGY

Methodology does not mean method. It means a study of the science of methods.

Method = a way of doing something. It is a systematic procedure that has been planned. Methodology outside of its precise meaning is pompous inflation.

A venerable London hospital had this notice in its X-Ray waiting room:

"Dressing gowns are available, if you require one, please ask a member of staff."

That notice was not a quick hand-written one, but was permanent on a large plastic tablet stuck to the wall. I was told it had been up some time.

Two generations ago any grammar-school child could have corrected that punctuation to:

"Dressing gowns are available. If you require one, please ask a member of staff."

How is this connected to the BBC?

If the current BBC passes lapses in language with "English changes", be not surprised that language-carelessness spreads.

BBC Radio 4 7.07 am 25th November 2008 From the news-reader

For the week I can be heard on BBC Ipod, which records my statement in ANY ANSWERS, Saturday 22nd November 2008, that those most to blame for the Rose/Brand debacle are the two at the very top of the BBC, the Director General Chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons.

"When something deeply disgraceful occurs in a great organisation, blame those at the very top. Ross, Brand and their controller were not at the top of the BBC organisation. Mark Thompson and Sir Michael Lyons are. Both should be replaced. Would they have reacted if there had been no complaints? Why wait for forty thousand?"