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[Misc] Declining journalism/editing standards on BBC website...









Seagull

Yes I eat anything
Feb 28, 2009
805
On the wing




Goldstone1976

We Got Calde in!!
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Apr 30, 2013
14,124
Herts
"Dog owners have 33% lower risk of death, study finds", reads the clickbait link on the front page of BBC.co.uk this morning.

"Odd", I thought, "up til this very moment, I thought I had a 100% risk of death. Perhaps I'd better get a dog, then I'll have a 1 in 3 chance of immortality."

Turns out that's not what the article (or even the article's headline) says at all. What the study actually found is "They found there was a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in owners of dogs, particularly of hunting breeds. While owning a dog may help physical activity, researchers said it may be active people who choose to own dogs."
 






exKT17

Well-known member
Nov 27, 2016
341
Argyll & Bute
Fragment from BBC News today, about a [mightily] disturbed man who killed and cooked a Collie dog: (my emboldenment):

"The incident was uncovered when he told hospital health professionals what he had done.

Police then visited his house, where they found burned dog hair and a liquid on the grate of the fire.

Sentencing him on Wednesday, the judge said this was a "particularly disgraceful and heinous offence".

He said O'Connor had misled the people from whom he got the dog, leading them to believe she would be nurtured and protected.

Instead, he said that it was clear that O'Connor was going to kill this dog and "inflict serious cruelty".

He said O'Connor's behaviour was "barbaric and calculated".

The judge added that O'Connor had raised questions about his mental health, but did not provide any medical evidence on which the court could rely.

He said he had displayed "no real remorse" and despite not giving evidence on his own behalf, O'Connor seemed to challenge the evidence against him.

The court heard that O'Connor had 23 precious convictions."
 


seagulls4ever

New member
Oct 2, 2003
4,338
I just saw this particularly newsworthy article (not) on the BBC Football website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/44075226

It's also being promoted on the front page of the BBC News website: bbc.png

To top it off, Pascal Gross was initially called Christian Gross (now corrected).

Declining standards indeed...
 




Wozza

Custom title
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
24,379
Minteh Wonderland
My personal opinion is that style guides should respect company brand guidelines. It's fair enough to apply a generic style guide in situations where there is no brand guidance, but where that brand guidance does exist it should trump style guides.

Your personal opinion is misguided.

Editorial should be independent and consistent, and not bend to the demands of individual advertisers or other orgs.

Imagine news pages with company names in all caps (as many try to insist on), trademark/copyright symbols etc. Just horrible.

And the UK system of differentiating between an acronym (eg Nato, Aids, Radar) and an initialisation (eg QPR, BBC, FBI) is ace.
 


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