- Jamie Donald
- 18 Jul 06, 04:46 PM
‘Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey...’
Everyone at The Daily Politics is humming after hearing of George Bush and Tony Blair chatting informally at the G8 summit.
‘Yeah, he is sweet’ says Bush at one point. ‘He’s honey’, Blair replies.
We don’t know who they’re talking about – is it President Assad of Syria – and we’ve had a big argument in the office over whether Blair says ‘he’s honey’ or in fact says ‘he’s had it’. Our reporter Giles Dilnot, no mean hand with a mike, is convinced only the later interpretation makes sense of the whole exchange. Click here to listen and make up your own mind.
Is 'Yo! Blair' a friendly greeting from Bush to an equal, or patronising and disrespectful? Our linguist – Dr. Colleen Cotter from the University of London and an American to boot – thought it was just what you’d expect of two old mates kicking back at a summit. Some of the British papers this morning are more sceptical.
And is ‘shit’ a good way to sum up what’s happening in Lebanon? Bush uses it (though on air we bleeped it out) and our linguist thought it was exactly the kind of language you’d expect in private conversation between friends. Again the papers disagree, some believing it say more about the American president’s grasp of diplomacy than the Middle East.
And then there’s the sweater. Or should that be jumper. Nick Clegg, the great Liberal Democrat hope, thought Tony had made a classic fashion mistake by picking out knitwear for George when the weather is so hot here and in Texas. But in the office we reasoned that if an American billionaire give John Prescott cowboy boots and a Stetson then Burberry is the only riposte.
Open mike cock-ups are legendary, and make fantastic talking points. Remember calling half his cabinet ‘bastards’ when he thought the tape wasn’t rolling – or thinking he was too far away for reporters to hear him describing the ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell as an awful man.
The Blair-Bush exchange tops them both in my view, because it will be picked over for weeks for meaning, and for clues about one of the most important relationships in the world.
Jamie Donald is editor of live political programmes
Jamie Donald is editor of live political programmes
- Pat Stevenson
- 18 Jul 06, 03:15 PM
Nipple clamps, group sex and swingers' clubs. Grist to the tabloids' mill perhaps, but the ´óÏó´«Ã½?
Covering was always going to be a challenge in terms of taste and decency.
The Scottish Socialist MSP is fighting a series of claims made in the newspaper about his sex life. Allegations that he denies but the paper contends are "substantially true".
The first question, given the likely content of the evidence - should we be covering the court proceedings at all? is arguably one of only a few Members of the Scottish Parliament who people in the street would recognise. His high profile stems from his career in challenging the establishment. He was jailed for his actions in fighting the poll tax and taking part in blockades at Faslane nuclear submarine base. He was the founder member of the Scottish Socialist Party, and as leader, raised its profile to such an extent in the first term of the Scottish Parliament that the party picked up five additional seats in the 2003 elections.
Eighteen months ago his resignation from the leadership topped the news. So, a major character in Scottish politics, and as an editor a case I think we should be covering. Having made that decision, how much detail should we broadcast? Radio literally has a captive audience of children. Strapped in the backseat of a car, kids are tuned into whatever their parents are listening to.
As a parent I'm aware of the kind of questions that are asked. And a ten year old probably isn't going to buy the line "Mr Sheridan was just having a sleepover". But as a broadcaster it is the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s legal and editorial duty to report a case both fairly and accurately, both from a defamation and contempt point of view. "Enough" pled one text to the programme, but leaving out large chunks of evidence could leave us in legal difficulties.
That's not to say every detail is picked over. In practical terms, radio just hasn't got the time to go into the minutiae in the same way as newspapers. I did make the decision not to broadcast the word "b****rd" when a witness swore at an advocate during the case. Why? It wasn't part of the evidence and so I thought it could be left out. The word has however been used in the programme before (John Major's outburst of frustration over eurosceptics, for example). But every story throws up different challenges and every decision can be challenged. That's what being an editor is about.
And we did decide not to use the nipple clamps.
Pat Stevenson is editor of Radio Scotland's Newsdrive programme
A guide to words and names in the news, from Martha Figueroa-Clark of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Pronunciation Unit.
"Our recommendation for Hezbollah is hez-buul-AA (stress on final syllable). We've arrived at this recommendation by considering the original Farsi pronunciation, the Arabic pronunciation and anglicised pronunciations in published sources.
In yesterday's post, some of you asked how to pronounce the word orthoepist (a professional pronouncer).
It's not a word we use in everyday conversations but we find it ironic that a word that refers to correct pronunciations can be said in so many ways! These possibilities include: OR-thoh-ep-ist, or-thoh-EE-pist and or-THOH-uh-pist. All these are acceptable but our personal preference is perhaps the last one."
(.)
- Tim Bailey
- 18 Jul 06, 01:59 PM
Amid the coverage of efforts to get British people out of Lebanon, I'm hoping all my colleagues remember that people can "be evacuated" but they do not "evacuate", unless they are doing something quite different. (I've clarified this entry from earlier - there used to be a debate about whether evacuation could apply to people at all, ie that only buildings or places could be evacuated, but it's now of course quite acceptable usage to say that people are evacuated, and our style reflects that.) [Updated Friday 21 July 0930 BST]
Tim Bailey is editor of the Radio 4 Six O'Clock News
Tim Bailey is editor of the Radio 4 Six O'Clock News
- Jon Williams
- 18 Jul 06, 11:44 AM
It's one of the iron laws of journalism: if everyone else is trying to get out of somewhere, you can bet there's a journalist trying to get in.
So while the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence work up a plan to evacuate the 10,000 British passport holders from Beirut, ´óÏó´«Ã½ staff are going the other way. With impeccable timing we opened a new bureau in Beirut on May 30th - renewing an association with the Lebanese capital after a 15 year absence. It was designed as a home for Beirut correspondent Kim Ghattas and her ´óÏó´«Ã½ Arabic Service colleague Nada Abdel Samad.
It's given us a head start in covering the story. One of our most experienced Middle East hands, Jim Muir, also lives in the city - in the days since the conflict escalated, he's been joined by more than two dozen colleagues who are now providing output for radio and television around the clock.
The closure of the airport in Beirut has made life difficult for those getting in, as well as those getting out. While the British are preparing for what they say will be the biggest evacuation since Dunkirk, our teams are making the hazardous journey to Beirut from the Syrian capital Damascus by road.
Things are no easier on the other side of the border; a team in Northern Israel is recording the impact of Hezbollah's rockets on the port city of Haifa. In both countries, the safety of our teams is our biggest concern. This afternoon the team in Haifa had to move to a more secure location after a sleepless night - tonight they'll have a bomb shelter to repair to if the sirens go off.
Sadly we've had all too recent experience of the dangers facing those reporting this conflict. It was in Southern Lebanon that our colleague Abed Takkoush was killed when he was struck by an artillery shell while driving with a ´óÏó´«Ã½ team during the pullout of the Israeli army in May 2000.
In Lebanon, in Israel - as in Iraq and Afghanistan - the teams that report the story all volunteer to do so. They travel to these dangerous places because they believe the story needs telling. I'm grateful they do so.
Jon Williams is world news editor
Jon Williams is the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s world news editor
As with previous days, much of the audience response received by ´óÏó´«Ã½ News in the past 24 hours relates to coverage of the crisis in the Middle East. Amongst other issues, some people objected to the comparison of the evacuation of Britons from Lebanon to the evacuation from Dunkirk during World War II.
Some people also objected to the broadcast of a recording of between President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair.
We also received this e-mail:
What had set ´óÏó´«Ã½ apart from other news organizations was its traditional and professional objective reporting and presentation. Hope ´óÏó´«Ã½ gets back to tradition soon.
The Guardian: More on the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s response to complaints over a spoof report of an incident at the Queen's party at the palace. ()
The Telegraph: Comments on Foreign Office minister Kim Howells advising Britons in Lebanon to listen to the ´óÏó´«Ã½. ()
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