please empty your brain below
It's Paul Burrell, but don't worry, I wish I didn't know his name too.

dg writes: So it is, ta. And so he is now.

Sam | 15.01.08 - 1:57 a.m. | #

Great post DG. You have captured the utter pointlessness of turning news bulletins into a brand excellently.

The 'warm up' advertising for the return of News at Ten got right up my nose: it just reeked of being more about the personalities (celebrities?) presenting it rather than the content - eg that blonde woman blathering on about being flattered and having to be the dogs wotsits at reading the news because "you've been invited into the viewer's house late at night". Sweetheart, I am watching the programme because I want to know what happened in the world today and I couldn't give two hoots who is presenting it.

And the BBC is not blameless either: step forward personality/celebrity reporters Nick Robinson and Evan Davies. They are obviously intelligent chaps and good communicators. But I want to hear the facts about what has happened - not what they make of the day's events and their opinions for the future. If I want to know what they think about something, I’ll read their (admittedly very enjoyable) blogs over on the BBC site.

My bottom line: news bulletins should be substance over style every time and, for me, the BBC is – and always has been - a long way ahead.

Marc | 15.01.08 - 8:04 a.m. | #

I meant to watch the Bongs but forgot. I bet they were out of sync with real time on Freeview, Cable and Satellite - what a stupid time to re-introduce a system that will fail for most of the users.

Rick | Homepage | 15.01.08 - 8:50 a.m. | #

*spots correct use of 'fewer' at 10.11 on ITV*
*smiles*

Blue Witch | Homepage | 15.01.08 - 9:03 a.m. | #

I watched the bongs and flipped to the Beeb as well. Decided I do prefer the BBC radio 4 news afterall.

Your crisp quest was more gripping!

Amused | 15.01.08 - 10:04 a.m. | #

Definitely a slow news day.

I would have been interested to see a third coverage, SKY (the spawn of all that is unholy). I find that I can watch about 50 seconds of Sky news and then I have to either switch channels or throw up.

SheyMouse | Homepage | 15.01.08 - 10:26 a.m. | #

Thanks dg for that comprehensive report. It has reminded me why I gave up watching tv news a few years ago. I am more than happy with the six o'clock news on Radio 4 - a comprehensive, well written and properly read round up of the day's events.

Dave | 15.01.08 - 10:47 a.m. | #

Blue Witch, Are you absolutely sure this is a correct use of the word fewer ?

As I understand it the word fewer should be used only for discrete items e.g. less salt, fewer grains of salt. But here we are measuring time - something that is infinitely divisible. So it is less time. The fact that one measures it in minutes is irrelevant. It could have taken 3.33 recurring minutes on ITV and 4.01 minutes on BBC. So it would have taken less minutes. However if one was measuring fixed discrete times then fewer would be correct e.g. the BBC had fewer one-minute items than ITV but I don't think this was what DG meant. Maybe he did.

As I have said before I think that the rules are just too confusing for the average mortal as it involves an understanding of both advanced mathematical concepts and a jood understanding of grammer.

Pedantic of Purley | 15.01.08 - 11:00 a.m. | #

In terms of audience, the BBC won.

4.9m viewers against 3.8m

But of course, it's not a competition. Is it?

Scaryduck | Homepage | 15.01.08 - 11:07 a.m. | #

PoP - as one can measure the number of minutes on a stopwatch, and count the number of items, I stand by my original assertion.

Blue Witch | Homepage | 15.01.08 - 11:50 a.m. | #

PoP I agree with BW.

Minutes are countable, so "fewer minutes" is correct. Of course had DG decided to talk about "time" instead, this isn't countable so he would have written "less time".

However I am straying off topic here, so I will now shut up.

three-legged-cat | Homepage | 15.01.08 - 1:28 p.m. | #

I don't mean to sound cruel hearted, but how long a contract has Sir Trev actually been given? And shame on both channels (NEVER news organisations) for not having the balls, so to speak, to employ a female of a similar age as Sir Trev.

Beauty and the Beast, etc, but if anyone else calls Julie Etchingham (no, me neither) a Beast then I'll throttle them.

onionbagblogger | Homepage | 15.01.08 - 1:38 p.m. | #

So what did you do .. watch one live and record the other? Have two TV's on at the same time? Or watch the BBC 10 o'clock news back on the great IPLAYER! mwah har haa...

Geofftech | Homepage | 15.01.08 - 1:56 p.m. | #

Silly me misunderstanding less and fewer. I would have said less than ten pounds but apparently as pounds are countable I should have said fewer than ten pounds. I'll never get the hang of this. I suppose I should shut up too.

Pedantic of Purley | 15.01.08 - 2:16 p.m. | #

For people confused by the fewer/less; the usage follows exactly the same usage as many/much. People don't get confused by many/much so just try substituting those words to see which sounds right:

"How much minutes are left", "how many time do we have"? Nahh.

I'll get me coat.

Chris | 15.01.08 - 3:05 p.m. | #

We've done less/fewer to death before *cough*

I suspect the sixth rule of blogging must be...
"You get more comments if you make a mistake."

Unfortunately it seems you also end up with fewer relevant comments

diamond geezer | Homepage | 15.01.08 - 5:38 p.m. | #

Geoff - I watched the Ten O'Clock News live and recorded News at Ten. Unfortunately TV reception where I live is so poor that I can only watch one TV at a time.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 15.01.08 - 5:42 p.m. | #

Ah, but, you didn't make a mistake this time, and I was just pointing that out

Besides, at least someone might have learnt something useful from this post today, which is more than they could do from the quality of the news on either channel these days...

Blue Witch | 15.01.08 - 7:07 p.m. | #

I know the "fewer " bit is over but can't resist pointing out that Pedantic of Purley forgot his "grammer" in his haste to post!

Elaine | 15.01.08 - 10:05 p.m. | #

Trevor McDonald...but to you........Sir Trevor....

Bowroad | 15.01.08 - 11:56 p.m. | #

I prefer to get my news fresh on the B.B.C. website during the day, after listening to the B.B.C. radio news in the morning, it's all a bit stale by 10 o'clock, and I'm in bed anyway.

Surrey Girl | 16.01.08 - 8:26 p.m. | #











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