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Sunday, January 25, 2009
Who writes the BBC website?
There's a sweet story on the BBC site about "folk singer" James Taylor buying a fan a new iPod after she had to give up her own in settlement of a cab fare. Near the bottom of the item it drops this brick, presumably sourced from Hackipedia:
Taylor is best known for penning the classics You've Got a Friend and How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You).
In actual fact the first one was by Carole King and the second by Holland-Dozier-Holland. Apart from that it's a sentence difficult to fault.
I was driving somewhere the other morning, and whilst browsing radio stations, trying to find something to listen to, I stumbled across Radio 2's 'Pop News' (or something... there was a ridiculously perky female presenter, and Johnny Walker was involved). The "amazing" news was that David Bowie was recording a new album in Berlin. And what made this news *so* significant was that it was now almost twelve years since Bowie had recorded Low and Heroes in Berlin, and so critics were apparently all excited about this "follow-up".
Being generous, there's potentially some relevant thing Bowie did twelve years ago, and the researchers just mixed up the notes. I dunno; mistakes are easily made. The thing that really struck me though, was that Walker didn't even politely correct her, take the piss or whatever. Just left it, as though it didn't really matter that a clanger had just been dropped.
I note this story has now been amended. 'Taylor has been nominated for two Grammys including best male pop vocal performance for the song Wichita Lineman and best pop vocal album for Covers.'
That para was in there before. They've obviously just taken out the one before that that had the error. What irritates me about things like this is they're the sign of a piece of "knowledge" that has been copied down from somewhere else.
Maybe it was by the same person who, in the iPlayer programme information, wrote that Generation Kill was “a raw account of the war in Iraq as seen from the inside of an American tank”.
I was caught unawares in front of the TV at the weekend when "Don't Forget the Lyrics" (or whatever that god-forsaken show is actually called) came on. Switched off 3 seconds into it when You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman) was identified as being by Aretha Franklin. A fairly crass mistake for a programme about lyrics. Apologies to Ms King again I think.
I've given up informing radio presenters of their cock-ups because they're too bloody ignorant to acknowledge their mistakes. Steve Wright is the worst. At least people like Andrew Collins, when he was on 6Music, had the decency to respond and you could have a joke about it. It seems to be all about "personality" DJs and to hell with facts.
I was driving somewhere the other morning, and whilst browsing radio stations, trying to find something to listen to, I stumbled across Radio 2's 'Pop News' (or something... there was a ridiculously perky female presenter, and Johnny Walker was involved). The "amazing" news was that David Bowie was recording a new album in Berlin. And what made this news *so* significant was that it was now almost twelve years since Bowie had recorded Low and Heroes in Berlin, and so critics were apparently all excited about this "follow-up".
ReplyDeleteBeing generous, there's potentially some relevant thing Bowie did twelve years ago, and the researchers just mixed up the notes. I dunno; mistakes are easily made. The thing that really struck me though, was that Walker didn't even politely correct her, take the piss or whatever. Just left it, as though it didn't really matter that a clanger had just been dropped.
I note this story has now been amended. 'Taylor has been nominated for two Grammys including best male pop vocal performance for the song Wichita Lineman and best pop vocal album for Covers.'
ReplyDeleteThat para was in there before. They've obviously just taken out the one before that that had the error. What irritates me about things like this is they're the sign of a piece of "knowledge" that has been copied down from somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was by the same person who, in the iPlayer programme information, wrote that Generation Kill was “a raw account of the war in Iraq as seen from the inside of an American tank”.
ReplyDeleteI was caught unawares in front of the TV at the weekend when "Don't Forget the Lyrics" (or whatever that god-forsaken show is actually called) came on. Switched off 3 seconds into it when You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman) was identified as being by Aretha Franklin. A fairly crass mistake for a programme about lyrics. Apologies to Ms King again I think.
ReplyDelete...and to Gerry Goffin and Jerry Wexler.
ReplyDeleteIt's as if the Brill Building had never existed.
ReplyDeleteI've given up informing radio presenters of their cock-ups because they're too bloody ignorant to acknowledge their mistakes. Steve Wright is the worst. At least people like Andrew Collins, when he was on 6Music, had the decency to respond and you could have a joke about it. It seems to be all about "personality" DJs and to hell with facts.
ReplyDelete