- Branded - 3rd February 2025
- Wordy part one - 3rd February 2025
- Accident black spot - 31st January 2025
During 23 years with the BBC, and a 41 year journalistic career (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, words have been all-important, but today complete gobbledegook seems to be INCREASING so more than ever now you need to interpret what is said…
I suggest a business opportunity.
There should be a special app converting the nonsense or business-speak people spout these days into real ENGLISH!
This is because you need to have your wits about you when you read stuff, to interpret the real meaning behind words, although sometimes there isn’t one because it is so vacuous that it might be better to make animal noises!
News Editors (now known as ‘Content Editors’) constantly told me everything published should be understandable, and that nothing should be trite or contain a self-evident truism.
In other words you should be clear in what you say, and the statement should NOT be blindingly obvious!
But, it seems, these iron rules which make what you say or write simple for the audience, are being flouted, and some in the media world (who should know better) are among the worst offenders.
Look, for example, at an announcement from Rhuanedd Richards, (formerly Chief Executive of Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru [PC], but now the Director of BBC Cymru Wales [BBC CW]).
Their website states proudly: “As Director, Wales, Rhuanedd leads the BBC Wales Executive Teams”, and blandly “Having left the BBC in 2007 she worked as a special adviser to the Welsh Government, chief executive of Plaid Cymru and latterly as a policy adviser to the Presiding Officer of the Welsh Parliament”.These are words that need explaining.
Critics may wonder if this background gives a nationalist bent to her decisions governing what is the biggest broadcaster in Wales.
There could be criticism too over the fact that Ms Richards had thanked a man on social media for congratulating her on getting a job, despite the fact that he had been placed under police investigation, and the nationalist paper he went on to found, only lasted EIGHT months!
Bafflingly, she has declared: “We must make more impact and become more relevant to more people rather than super-serving the same people”.
Let’s unpack this a bit, as far as we can.
It takes a little time, but I THINK the first part means that audiences should want to WATCH the 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 stated at all! Or am I just being thick?!
Perhaps we can find an answer by examining in a bit more detail (if you can bear it!) an announcement 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”.
The phrase, though, is perplexing. What exactly does ‘thought leader’ mean?! !s it just thinking about it, but not actually doing it?
No idea. It is obvious, however, that Mr Mooney’s organisation NEEDS a governance strategy.
It was formulated after we showed how the North Wales city of Wrexham had been at the centre of an astonishing row.
The FAW was founded in Wrexham in 1876, but an alarming post on Twitter/X from ‘Saroadh PR’ said that some fans of the football club there, “beat the absolute shit out of Tomy (sic) Robinson (former English Defence League [EDL] leader) far right fascists”, backing up the message with a picture of men in balaclavas holding guns aloft.
The tweet outlined a series of mundane actions, including waking up early and taking a train to Manchester, before the violence.
It then proclaimed: “All in a days work for the Welsh lads” – 197 accounts retweeted the message and more than 1,200 accounts liked it.
It’s always an ‘exciting journey’. You are not allowed to be down-beat, bored, or even realistic, in meetings.
But this trait is also evident in international affairs too, so, again, you must interpret what is said.
Examine, for instance, announcements coming out of China now where the economy is in real trouble, and 2025 presents ENORMOUS challenges. You wouldn’t know it though from what is proclaimed by Xi Jinping or the official state media.
There are hints behind what is said, but you must read the runes.
Mr Xi recently declared: “To do a good job of next year’s economic work, we must first firmly establish confidence in victory”.
At the annual session of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), which will begin on March 5 and last for several days, delegates will be under pressure to sound upbeat like their leader.
Chinese journalists, incidentally, will have to avoid any coverage that might suggest pessimism – there will be no place for troublemakers like me!
You also have to see through coded language.
The NPC is likely to gloss over politics, yet persistent turmoil at the top of the armed forces will be on the minds of many of the nearly 3,000 delegates, about 280 of whom are military personnel.
In November Admiral Miao Hua, who ranked fifth in the armed forces’ high command, was placed under investigation for “serious violations of discipline” which is a frequent euphemism they use for corruption.
Admiral Miao was believed to be close to Mr Xi, and by targeting him, Mr Xi may be trying to show that no one enjoys protection from his war on graft.
Occasionally the media which, ultimately, Mr Xi runs, lets slip that troubles are brewing, but, once more, you must decipher what is said.
In December Xinhua, the Government’s main news agency, referred to a “complicated and challenging environment of increasing external pressure and growing internal difficulties”.
There are difficulties, too, in working out what the truth is – and it is made worse if you don’t call A SPADE A SPADE!
The memories of Phil’s astonishing, decades long award-winning career in journalism (when stories with real meaning were all-important) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A Good Story’. Order it now.
Tomorrow – ‘Wordy part two’, where he looks at how certain expressions go in and out of fashion, and today a key phrase is emerging in political dialogue – ‘not a good/great look’…
