The BBC and its Dumbing Downhill Spiral

The past few years people in the media (other than the BBC) have complained that the BBC are trying to dumb down their output. I feel that this is the case but the area where the BBC are dumbing down is with respect to their editing of online articles, onscreen subtitles and even script editing.

A few examples

On their website I have had to constantly contact them with respect to factual errors. A recent example is when they were reporting on a row of Georgian tenements on MacKenzie Place in Edinburgh and showed a picture which appeared to be from around the 1950s with a title of "Edinburgh in Georgian times" I contacted them indicating that it would have been impossible to have a picture from Georgian times as cameras had not been invented in the period of 1714 to 1830.

Recently a newsreader read a script about a bomb discovered in Northern Ireland, that was indicated to be 'both viable and sustainable', this was repeated twice in the space of an hour. Of course, the script was meant to read as 'both viable and substantial" otherwise after exploding the bomb might have had positive green and environmentally-friendly effects.

And finally, wrong titles appearing on screen, this morning on "Something for the Weekend" during the item "what year was this programme on". One of the newspaper clippings was entitled as being from the "Independant" as opposed to the "Independent". This comes a few weeks after one of the most brilliant BBC programme "A History of Celtic Britain" an expert named Paul Russell was listed as being from the University of Cambrdige and not Cambridge. Although I am sure that the same mistake would not have been made with subtitling for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges' wedding.

Speaking as a proofreader I find this type of thing not only annoying but also an indication that standards are going downhill fast.