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During 23 years with the BBC and 42 years in journalism, our Editor Phil Parry, was always taught DO NOT USE JARGON AND SAY WHAT YOU MEAN!
This is now highlighted by a bulletin from the Bank of England (BoE) about the state of the economy in these uncertain times, which would have been complete gobbledygook to Mrs Jones in Rhyl.
Sometimes very important information is imparted in a way which is completely unintelligible for the ordinary person.
Companies, for example, often engage in mindless ‘business-speak’, with even those in the media world (or the officials behind them) doing it, and people might think that they should know better!
In announcing a trading update for his sprawling media interests, David Montgomery (nicknamed ‘Rommel’) said: “Given our scalable infrastructure the company will continue to seek to take advantage of further acquisitions that release significant synergies… Our greater scale, combined with significant investment in innovation and automation, underpin our accelerating transition to a multi-platform content business, focused on creative and expert talent”.
I am left scratching my head over this, but I THINK it means he wants to buy more things, and, using money as well as machines, move more to sharing stuff online.
But Mr Montgomery is not alone in graduating to business-speak gobbledygook in the media world.
Charles Yardley, (former Chief Executive Officer [CEO]) of the Evening Standard in London, was evidently very proud of a promotion in his newspaper, and told staff: “We should celebrate our continued cover wrap success this fiscal which has already yielded a huge £1.3 million.
“Exclusive wins for Virgin Atlantic, British Heart Foundation, and Strike were significant drivers across January. We will look to continue momentum and drive our big ticket solutions across this second quarter”.
“…social… really brings this product (the Evening Standard magazine ES) in a meaningful way that paves a digital forward thinking path for growth”.
The then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of media group Reach PLC (which Private Eye calls ‘Retch’, and is in charge of TWO of the major papers covering both north AND south Wales), Jim Mullen (who was awarded £949,999 in ordinary shares in the company at one point), is also no stranger to the new language and model of journalism.
As well as these disturbing examples, there are comments, too, from individuals high up in the world of broadcasting, where, I would suggest, it is paramount to communicate simply for your audience.
Rhuanedd Richards, was formerly CEO of Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru [Plaid], but is now the BBC’s Interim Director of Nations, in which role she sits on the corporation’s Executive Committee. After her appointment to a senior job at BBC Wales in June 2025, she declared: “We must make more impact and become more relevant to more people rather than super-serving the same people”.
Let’s break this down, as far as we can. It takes a little time, but I BELIEVE the first part means that audiences should want to WATCH the BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW) television material, LISTEN to its radio output, and READ what it has to offer online.
Yet surely a broadcaster would want to do this anyway, so it shouldn’t need to be said at all?! Or am I just being thick?!
But this jargon disease hasn’t simply infected the world of the media.
Let’s examine in a bit more detail (if you can bear it!) a pronouncement from the man in charge of football’s governing body in Wales, the Football Association of Wales (FAW), Noel Mooney, when he was giving details of a new ‘governance’ strategy.
He said: “The FAW is at the start of an exciting journey that will see us become a thought leader in world football”.
What exactly is a ‘thought leader’? Is it just thinking about leading, but not actually doing it?! No idea.
However for me the crowning jewel came in a recent bulletin from the Bank of England (BoE) about the state of the economy, which, given Donald Trump’s attack on Iran, surely EVERYONE would want to read.
In its most recent ‘Financial Stability’ report it proclaimed: “Leveraged borrowing by hedge funds in gilt repo markets remains elevated, reaching close to £100 billion…a small number of hedge funds account for more than 90 per cent of net gilt repo borrowing. These vulnerabilities, in the context of compressed risk premia in a highly uncertain global environment, increase the risk of sharp moves”.
This is almost certainly extremely important, but does anyone normal actually KNOW WHAT IT MEANS?! However, again for the sake of readers of The Eye like Mrs Jones in Rhyl, I’ll do my best to unpack this.
A hedge fund is a privately organised pool of capital that tries to generate high positive returns (absolute returns), but engages in speculation using credit or borrowed capital to do it, and is more lightly regulated than other investment vehicles. In other words it is a slightly dubious way of making money.
Leveraged refers to using borrowed money (debt) to increase potential investment returns. So effectively “Leveraged borrowing…” is ‘BORROWING BORROWING’ but presumably in this case it is only there to add emphasis! ‘Gilts’ are government bonds, and are issued by the UK Treasury as a way of raising money to be spent on things like hospitals, schools, and defence of the realm.
So I THINK the whole thing means that when Donald Trump bombs Iran you should be worried because a small number of hedge funds are investing in government bonds, and if they go belly up we’ll be in real trouble. I can’t be sure though because it is so opaque, and even for a journalist it is hard to interpret.
It is just like all the other gobbledygook we are told now.
I do my best for Mrs Jones, but even I’m stumped sometimes…
The memories of Phil’s remarkable decades long award-winning career (when using ‘jargon’ or ‘business-speak’ was a complete no-no) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book (which is easy to read!) ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
