I fear that the BBC's Robert Peston is succumbing to that peculiar form of self-importance affecting BBC reporters who suddenly find themselves at the centre of a huge story. Commenting on the effect of Congress's decision not to bail out the auto industry just now, he said "it's going to be a tough day but we'll get through it".
"We"? Whatever happens to GM workers or shareholders, Robert, I think it's reasonable to assume that your position and salary will not be affected.
Since everone seems to have taken against Robert Preston I've been listening out for him and still can't see the problem. He seems a farely standard beeb journo. I think the messenger is being shot particularly by City types, reluctant to take their share of the blame for the melt down.
ReplyDeleteHe's hilarious, a real actor. I heard him trying to explain something to Jeremy Vine a few weeks ago and the explanation took twice as long as it could have due to their both deploying an uber-Sindenesque armoury of extended vowwlwls and significant P-A-U-S-E-S. If only the Two Ronnies were in their heyday.
ReplyDeleteIt's only a matter of time before he starts talking about himself in the third person...
ReplyDeleteQuite the opposite. He's going to be more in demand than ever, more's the pity. He's a clever bloke and his written work is superb, but I'm afraid his presence on TV makes my shit itch. His voice and stagey manner just make me want to watch something else, no matter how interested I am in the topic. To be fair, since everything started going south, he's eased off on the Day Today/Brass Eye-esque analogies and graphics and stuck to the facts.
ReplyDeleteI expect everyone has read the following sentence; no matter how many times I read it I still can't comprehend it properly:
ReplyDelete"The cost of the US government's economic bailout ($3.92trn) comes to more than the Marshall plan, the Louisiana purchase, the New Deal, the invasion of Iraq, the Korean war, the Vietnam war and the entire lifetime budget of NASA combined - even allowing for inflation."
(from The Independent.)