h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The other great advantage to the Beer Widget is that it occasionally gets mentioned on the news. This forces the terribly proper BBC newsperson to have to resort to Widget. You can tell he desperately wants to call it a "Gas releasing device to be found at the bottom of many brands of beer can. Of course, I only know this due to my researcher explaining it earlier. I drink fine Bordeaux I'll have you know." Unfortunatlery, due to the dumming down currently evident in British television he (or she) is forced to say Widget. It's a sign of the times or something and would never have happened when people wore proper hats.

This morning on Radio Four dumming down reached new heights/depths/widths/dumbness. During an article on floods the announcer was describing the large area of the country that had been flooded recently as "as big as North Yorkshire, that means huge!"
Oh yeah and they think we can't cope with TLAs, referring to "the virus that leads to AIDS" with no mention of HIV.

That will be incase you confuse it with the short form for that popular Edinburgh footballteam, Hibernian.

What fun they had impressing us with "Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy" (sp?)

Perhaps the decline in the wearing of proper hats has led to the decline in the standards of newsreading or even British television itself?

Or perhaps I'm just slightly crazy? Opinions anybody?

Just be grateful you don't have to listen to American
newsreaders.

The other day, in respect of Hurricane Irene, the lady
at the anchor desk introduced the bloke being buffetted
on the beach as "Tom, who is on Clearwater Beach which
is near Tampa this afternoon."

Lil

Where was it last week then? Had it perhpas been blown in from the Carribean by this Irene woman?

Well, I have a theory, ably recounted over here http://www.h2g2.com/A153893 ny suggestions will be greatfully received.

Crikey I have a lot to say on this. Anyway.

I get the feeling that they do that every so often, to stop the newsreaders leaving in a huff over the whole dumming down issue. In the same vein, they now have that Welsh bloke doing the six o'clock news just so he can chuck in the odd welsh placename. Stops the union getting antsy.