Words Dept.

Applying any kind of critical thought to the optimistic fluff churned out by a lot of senior business people and their PRs at the moment is, it seems, tantamount to treason. As such, I’ve been told off/whinged at a couple of times in the last fortnight for contributing to the mysterious art of “talking us [...]

It’s touching the way the Times doesn’t allow swearing within its pages. It harks back to a safer time, before the Lady Chatterley trial and the subsequent decline in moral standards that ruined society. In a way, I can understand why they might balk at the “f-word”, the “c-word” or the “x-word”. But there’s no [...]

Presenter Nicky Campbell got into a spot of bother this morning on The Big Questions, a religious/”issues” programme I found myself watching on BBC1. The author Joanne Harris was on there as a guest and Campbell was talking to her about a religious experience she supposedly once had. He reminded her of the time she [...]

Is it fair to say that coverage of the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the South East has been overblown as a result of the so-called “silly season”? According to Peter Wilby in the Guardian yesterday, the excitable tone of coverage, especially in the Daily Mail – which, a fortnight ago described a [...]

I fear Doctor Who is running out of steam a bit. What other excuse can there be for two BBC press releases on two consecutive days revealing “celebrity” involvement in forthcoming episodes? Yesterday it was Kylie, today it’s Catherine Tate. (Cue excessive coverage on the main BBC TV and radio news bulletins… and not much [...]