Various, swearing, TV news

Swearing

The public acceptance of swearing has changed radically over the past sixty years. The use of four letter words has become widespread in the media. I wince a little. At least we have, I hope, progressed a bit from a few years ago when if a comedian used f--- he was greeted with cheers and applause as though it was something great.

I suppose I took my attitude from my father. He swore but never ever ( not in my hearing anyway ) used four letter words. What he did use sometimes was “bugger”. I remember being quite shocked at work when a young lady in the lab said I swore a lot partly I reckon because I used this also.

Annette’s family were even more anti swearing. I recall vividly when her elder brother said “damnit” and her mother immediately leapt in, said she wouldn’t have swearing in her house and sent him out. I thought it was rather charming that Annette was so unused to swearing that when we were courting she would beg me to explain words. I was too shy to do so. Her father was the most even tempered man I’ve ever met. Not only did he never swear it was a very rare occasion when he showed mild irritation.

At secondary school an English teacher explained the religious implication of some ( Be damned as in consigning to hell; bloody as short for by God’s blood ). He pointed out that often swearing is simply a lack of vocabulary. I tend nowadays to think it has become a habit. A lazy speaker uses four letter words routinely without bothering about their effect on speaker or audience. Through frequent use the shock effect has decreased.

I think ( well I certainly hope ) I don’t swear much. It is sometimes  almost therapeutic when very frustrated to swear a bit but I really try to limit in case repetition becomes boring.

TV news

We have been disappointed for some time with BBC news. Here I’m mainly thinking of the Six o’clock news. This fits rather well in terms of timing with our usual routine. I quite enjoy Pointless which precedes it at 5.15-6.00.  I like the presenters and I can usually answer the questions unless on pop music or football. The news editors at Six o’clock have rather succeeded in “dumbing down” to what I would characterise as tabloid newspaper standards. In addition there are clear biases. For example any news about the NHS, usually about its lack of finance, gets high billing. I have been unimpressed by the feeble acceptance of industrial thinning out with a great emphasis on job losses. I am very unimpressed by the amount of vox pop, carefully balanced interviews with the “man in the street”. I’m left with the strong impression that the famous BBC impartiality has become a reluctance to have any meaningful comment.

In fairness to the BBC it does have news programmes with far greater depth such as Newsnight but its 10.30 slot comes too late in the evening. Also the 30 minute format imposes its own limits. Certainly the BBC can point to single theme programmes such as Panorama which detail stories .However we are switching to Channel 4 news which appears to use its hour long format to get some real depth into its reporting. I feel anyone who gets their news solely from the Six o’clock bulletin will finish up sadly underinformed. The time slot is less convenient so we will see.

I have written in the past about fake news. It seems this is spreading. Some politicians like Trump seem to be using it as a policy and his success is being copied. The only real defence is to use several news sources, avoid the obviously biased and separate news from opinion. While there is some serious news reporting on the internet  in general it is a hotbed of the biased and the fake. It is very depressing to hear about software which produces ever more realistic seeming fakes.

I wrote this before I heard Boris Johnson is refusing an interview with Channel 4 news because their chief executive has said one purpose of journalism is to investigate government and expose any lies. Two things immediately occur to me. Firstly this is straight out of the Trump playbook where the only good press is a fawning press. Secondly is Johnson really so thin skinned. But thinking about he has a lot to cover up or try to deny- 350m a week to the NHS on leaving the EU for a start.