Saturday 30 March 2013

I hope grammar is on Women's Agenda


I don't know what the link or the website is about but I just had to stop and grab this tweet from the Women's Agenda feed.

After picking up my jaw from the floor, the only line I could write here is "I really hope grammar is on Women's Agenda."

Tuesday 5 March 2013

BBC Today Programme discusses Justin Bieber


The maThe BBC Today Programme jewel in the crown and, some would argue, the only redeeming feature in the BBC's domestic ratio output.

This is where politicians dare not step in until they've been briefed by their spin doctors and are convinced that they are armed with everything needed to fend off the very tough hosts.  It's so well regarded although it's only on air between 6 - 9am on weekdays but has researchers and writers working on it around the clock.  It's also the one show the ruling class and the "decision makers" (I hate this dreadful phrase) listen to.

In short: The Today Programme doesn't do fluff;  it's the home of good old English snobbery.

Imagine my surprise when I was scrolling through my twitter feed this morning in an effort to glean what the ruling class were listening to and was confronted by this tweet:


 Was the Today Programme trying to eat into Nick Grimshaw's audience by attract pre-teen girls to their show by reporting the shenanigans of asexual Canadian singing haircut?  No.  It turns out, yummy mommies and their little Poppies and Sophies of poshest Hertfordshire had been kept waiting for - depending on who you talk to -  between forty minutes to two hours.  I gather a lot of them got in touch with the programme to lament "this young man's lack of manners".

I guess normal service resumes tomorrow at the Today Progamme and it's back to the Westminster gossip.  That's an opportunity missed.  We could have dragged this show this century reality TV and general vacuousness.  Oh well ...

Saturday 2 March 2013

Nathi Blose R264000 monthly salary fail

Credit: Timeslive


I'm not sure what I should file this one under.

The story is that a car driven by the chauffeur son of a KwaZulu-Natal member of provincial legislature, Nathi Blose was involved in an accident and was written off as a result.

But the biggest part of the story - which seems to have been overlooked by everyone - including the journalists who wrote the story is that chauffeurs for KZN provincial legislature members earn R264 000 per month (even if that's an annual package, it's still extraordinarily high for a driver).  I'm guessing it's a misprint and that slip through the editorial net.  But what is is that nobody has contacted the newspaper to enquire if the figure is accurate otherwise they would have offered correction.  The alternative is that nobody thought it's anything out of the ordinary and that's truly scary.

If journalists and consumers of news think there's nothing wrong with squandering our tax money then we're really doomed.