Dumbed down BBC News!

But don't listen to Radio 4 at breakfast time with John Humphries , Justin Webb and Nick Robinson. They epitomise the bias of the Brexit Broadcasting Corporation.

The simplest thing to do is just not bother to watch tv, unless there is a particular program you wish to see.

Stick to radio, all the illustrations and pictures are your own.

Welsh is an official language of the U.K.

news item - sorry!!

The narration for any BBC documentary or new item these days has to be accompanied by many groan-inducing puns.

English-based Pidgin, is one of the most widely spoken languages across West Africa, even though it is not officially recognised.

It strikes me as a very sensible thing to do. It is getting BBC broadcasting to many millions of people across a wide swathe of countries who may not otherwise have access to the media that they could otherwise understand.

If the BBC can broadcast in Welsh, Arabic, French and Spanish, none of them the 'Queen's English', why not Pidgin?

The BBC website has a special section for ESOL, which has proven very useful for many of my students. I wonder if this is just an expansion of that service, for people unfamiliar with English idioms?

However, when you've been out of the UK a while and come back to visit, you realise everything has been dumbed down.

When one of our top scientists clearly spells out the huge risks to UK science from Brexit, it is concerning to see the BBC obscuring this reality with misinformed arguments straight out of the mouths of the Brexiters.

Anyone who listened to the interview with Paul Nurse on Saturday’s BBC Today programme will have got a clear picture of the damage that will be done to the UK’s research capacity if we were to leave the EU without a deal. Unfortunately, presenter Justin Webb chose to counter Nurse’s points by parroting a well-worn and highly inaccurate line from the Brexiter textbook.

Nurse is as distinguished a scientist as there is working in the UK, a Nobel laureate and director of the Francis Crick Institute. He explained (listen from 35 mins) the major loss in resources for research here if EU funding were cut off, given that the EU budget spends much more in the UK on research and innovation than we contribute to those programmes. In addition he spelled out the increased impediments and bureaucracy which would face EU academics, researchers and students wishing to come to the UK and why this would be seriously harmful.

Webb responded to this well-reasoned case by claiming: “If we’re not paying £39 billion to be part of the [EU] club and we need to spend an extra billion, we can do it.” This argument – a favourite of ultra-Brexiters – is dangerous rubbish.

infacts.org/bbc-reads-from-brexiter-textbook-on-threat-to-uk-science/

Because it annoys me, sodapop.

So there are two separate issues..a dumbing down of the news and accompanying pictures and the BBC proving news in different languages/dialects?

I don't think that idiomatic English e.g. 'on thin ice' can be understood by showing a picture of a skater! English idioms don't have literal meaning.

I findthat the news on radio 4 much better and much more analytical.

Why ? FarNorth

The irony there is that American English is said to be closer to how English used to be spoken in the U.K. - it's the Queen's English that's changed!

Though living languages are changing all the time through different influences.

Good idea about banning American English.

The BBC is much respected in W Africa, Boogaloo whatever we may think of it. If there was no demand for Pidgin, the BBC wouldn't be making these products.

I lived in Nigeria for five years and Pidgin is what people speak, it's their everyday language and it's deeply unpleasant that you're denigrating their method of communication.

So what if it isn't the Queen's English? Nor is American English - maybe we should ban that too.

SueDonim this is an excellent way for people to become more aware of world affairs.

Yes, make them all speak the Queen's English!!! The Empire is alive and flourishing.

Once upon a time in the U.S it was illegal to teach a slave to read or write English. The idea was to keep slaves ignorant and on the plantation.

That is the reason I find the BBC using pidgin English abhorrent.

Boogaloo
You obviously haven't been to the West Indies.
I'm sure some of my French/Spanish/Bulgarian could be described as 'pidgin'

Pidgin is the lingua franca in Nigeria and for some areas such as the Delta, it's their first language. Nigeria has about 500 different languages, some spoken by large numbers, others confined to small areas. Pidgin is a way for people, especially in urban areas, to be able to communicate with each other.

That is the same as dumbing down. As you stated, Pidgin English is not officially recognized. Can west Africans be successful using that version of English outside of Africa? I'd refuse to see a doctor who used it.

I notice how even our own English is being destroyed in the UK now.

Examples; 'Sat' instead of 'sitting'. 'Stood' instead of 'standing'. The press, including TV/radio, do not understand the difference between 'floor' and 'ground.' Regional dialects are being used throughout the UK instead of grammatically correct and coherent English.

I have read The News online for several years after making a conscious decision to avoid Television News.

However a couple of days ago I arrived at friends house just as she was watching weather forecast.

The forecasters (male) deserved an Oscar ?

Once upon a time a quick point to the regions together with temperature and weather predictions was enough,
Now arms are flayed, a flourish of the hand and a natty little twists of the body,
(half expecting a pirouett) all to explain that the next few days were going to be sunny and mild.

I'm sure the performance will be quite something when the next storm or snow hits ?

It is not 'dumbed down' it is designed for West African viewers who speak pidgin English, and I don't see why they should not have the same access to BBC programmes as anyone else Boogaloo
A new language service for digital platforms in English-based Pidgin for West and Central Africa has been launched by the BBC World Service.
Pidgin is one of the most widely-spoken languages across the region, even though it is not officially recognised
The launch is part of the World Service's biggest expansion since the 1940s, following a government funding boost announced in 2016.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-40975399

*we're not 'were'. lol looks as if I'm the stupid one.