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During 23 years with the BBC, and 40 years in journalism (when he was trained to use simple language, avoiding jargon), our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry has always known the importance of calling a ‘spade a spade’, but questions the use of idioms or euphemisms about being sacked.
Previously he has described how he was helped to break into the South Wales Echo office car when he was a cub reporter, recalled his early career as a journalist, the importance of experience in the job, and made clear that the ‘calls’ to emergency services as well as court cases are central to any media operation.
He has also explored how poorly paid most journalism is when trainee reporters had to live in squalid flats, the vital role of expenses, and about one of his most important stories on the now-scrapped 53 year-old BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW) TV Current Affairs series, Week In Week Out (WIWO), which won an award even after it was axed, long after his career really took off.
Phil has explained too how crucial it is actually to speak to people, the virtue of speed as well as accuracy, why knowledge of ‘history’ is vital, how certain material was removed from TV Current Affairs programmes when secret cameras had to be used, and some of those he has interviewed.
Earlier he disclosed why investigative journalism is needed now more than ever although others have different opinions, and how information from trusted sources is crucial.
Why can’t people be clear and honest about what the position is, especially when they have been sacked?!
Why do they always have to use euphemisms?!
There are legions of them, and this is put centre stage by the use of one of them during the sacking of Siân Doyle as head of the Welsh fourth channel, S4C.
Ms Doyle was off on ‘sick leave’ at the time she was shown the door, apparently, and she has bleated that she had been “dismissed by the Chairman of S4C, Rhodri Williams, in what I believe is an unprecedented lack of governance for a public body”.
She added: “I was dismissed by letter, without notice, without a meeting, without seeing a copy of the Capital Law report (on bullying in her former organisation) or any evidence, without a right of appeal, and without proper grounds”.
The allegations of bullying against Ms Doyle, throw an interesting light on her comments when she was appointed in 2021.
She declared then: “My passion for my colleagues and the needs of consumers has been integral to my experience over the years”.
Some may think that Mr Williams has questions to face now, other than those raised by Ms Doyle, after his Chief Executive (CE), was booted out of S4C only two years after she was appointed.
‘Sick leave’, though, is far from being the only euphemism that is used in these circumstances, because those with a controversial background are often on that, or are placed on ‘gardening leave’.
Here are some of the others:
- people are ‘let go’, instead of being fired
- they often then say they are ‘between jobs’ instead of unemployed
- they have been ‘downsized’ when in fact they have been sacked
- they have ‘chosen to resign’ instead of being given no alternative other than to quit or face dismissal
- they say: ‘my position was eliminated’ instead of ‘I got fired’, or even that they have ‘taken early retirement’
- they are ‘pursuing other opportunities’, or blandly that they have just ‘left the company’
- they are ’embarking on a journey of self-discovery’, rather than simply looking for work
- they are then ‘considering options’, instead of being unable to find a job
- rather than being ‘out of my depth’ (which is a euphemism for not being able to do the job, but often an accurate one), they are ‘over-employed’
- if they are in a job which they feel doesn’t suit them, they are ‘under-employed’
For Ms Doyle her SACKING (for it was indeed that), was “extraordinary”, but no less extraordinary is the terms that are sometimes used, or what happened at S4C immediately before she was ‘let go’.
The senior employee Llinos Griffin-Williams, was also dismissed by Mr Williams for what the organisation said was “gross misconduct on multiple grounds, following receipt of serious allegations about her conduct at events following the Rugby World Cup match between Wales and Georgia”.
Seemingly these people are now ‘considering their options’…
Details of Phil’s astonishing decades-long journalistic career (including his years in broadcasting, although NOT in S4C), as he was gripped by the rare and incurable neurological condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in an important book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now.
Regrettably publication of another book, however, was refused, because it was to have included names.
Tomorrow – why for Phil it has always been important to report ALL the details of an important figure’s controversial background…
