AIBU to expect the BBC to know how to spell?

[LemonKitten]

More and more I'm seeing mainstream media with mis-spellings and grammatical errors. I know that people hate the grammar / spelling police on forums and social media, but surely it's not a lot to expect an institution such as the BBC to do some spellchecking?

To be honest, I'm not surprised. They also don't know what a woman is, so they can't be expected to grasp the rules of spelling.
And here I thought spelling and trans rights were unrelated topics. Do you warm up before making these huge leaps?

Someone will have told the graphic designer what to write. Presumably a journalist...

Why would you presume that?

@daisypond

Someone will have told the graphic designer what to write. Presumably a journalist...

Why would you presume that?

Because a graphic designers job isn't to report on news stories?

YABU - they do know how to spell. This is one error in how every many hundreds of thousands of news reporting. Yes it shouldn't happen but to suggest 'the BBC' don't know how to spell is a bit extreme

A few years ago the beeb was covering Remembrance Sunday and they put up a graphic saying the queen had laid a reef. I was 😬 that someone did not know difference between reef and wreath. Of course a spell checker would not pick it up either.

Their app is full of mistakes too, so I don't think there is a sub-editor checking it.

Even on TV the other night, there was a trailer or something between shows where they said something like 'complimentary' programming available to go along with whatever they were showing.

@clockover

YABU - they do know how to spell. This is one error in how every many hundreds of thousands of news reporting. Yes it shouldn't happen but to suggest 'the BBC' don't know how to spell is a bit extreme

My example is one error, I admit, but it's by no means the only one made by the BBC, as other posters have commented.

And when your one job is to educate and inform the masses, expecting your corporation to be able to spell things correctly isn't an extreme view.

@vickibee

A few years ago the beeb was covering Remembrance Sunday and they put up a graphic saying the queen had laid a reef. I was 😬 that someone did not know difference between reef and wreath. Of course a spell checker would not pick it up either.

That's really awful.

I do find that homophones seem to be one of the biggest problems they have, presumably because they rely on spell checkers too much.

I can forgive mistakes made by voice recognition software, which is what I assume is used to do the subtitles on TV. I'm less forgiving about nobody checking a pre-prepared graphic.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

I can forgive mistakes made by voice recognition software, which is what I assume is used to do the subtitles on TV. I'm less forgiving about nobody checking a pre-prepared graphic.

As you say, it's kind of expected in subtitles, but this was a headline graphic in their main news of the day!

M&S offering a sneak peak at something.
Surely peaks by definition are quite large and probably not that sneaky.

There are people who spell incorrectly because of dyslexia or other learning disabilities but I do feel that, if your job is to create documents/web pages for businesses etc you should be getting them checked.

I am dyslexic so sometimes I don’t know if a word is right or not, or if it’s in the correct context but if it was something going out for people to read I would ask someone to check it for me, usually boyfriend but my mum used to proofread stuff for me. Nothing wrong with having difficulty with spelling and grammar but own it and ask someone to read over your work before submitting it, I think it makes the company or bbc etc look quite stupid if they are putting content out with mistakes like that.

YA most definitely (or as many would write definately, or, defiantly) NBU!
It's so flipping annoying.
Social Media is bad enough; but when Mainstream Media fails, it truly gives me the rage.
They're supposed to be professionals.

@StealthPolarBear

M&S offering a sneak peak at something. Surely peaks by definition are quite large and probably not that sneaky.

Add to this that at 6.30am yesterday the male presenter (not sure of his name as I don't pay much attention at that time) gave the time check as 8.30am. No correction or apology either!

I get really irritated by this stuff but I used to know someone who wrote for the BBC News ticker and she said the speed/time pressure they were under was insane, so I can sort of understand it. I can also forgive typos in the live coverage of things like the Budget yesterday as it's a hard job interpreting and transcribing so quickly.

That screenshot though is... not good.

As a general rule society seems to value SPAG far less as time goes on (and I don't mean in the 'oh, language evolves' - I mean the genuinely incorrect). It does make me sad.

I saw once on the daily mail site
"A whole has been left in our hearts"
(Or similar) about the loss of a child

I find could of really annoying and also your instead of you’re.
Get hope your well in emails a lot from professionals on good salaries.

It's their continuity announcers that are really annoying me at the moment! They have one job - to inform viewers of what programmes are scheduled for that day. Some of them have such bad grammar I can barely understand what they are saying! I'm not talking about accents - that's fine, but please - they should be able to string an intelligible sentence together!

@Seeline

It's their continuity announcers that are really annoying me at the moment! They have one job - to inform viewers of what programmes are scheduled for that day. Some of them have such bad grammar I can barely understand what they are saying! I'm not talking about accents - that's fine, but please - they should be able to string an intelligible sentence together!

Can you give an example of what you mean by bad grammar and an unintelligible sentence?

@sbhydrogen

The majority of editing software do not have spell check features, so I can see how this happens. However, that's exactly why they have editors. It's a shame that this sort of thing isn't picked up on!

One would expect people in that sort of career to be good enough at spelling to not need a spell checker feature.

My car issues instructions when you turn off the engine. One of them is ‘Everyone out the car.’ The missing ‘of’ annoys me every time.

Not surprising. Many TV and radio presenters also don't know how to use correct grammar, and cannot be bothered to learn how to pronounce words they are not familiar with. Same with all media really. Yes, it DOES matter, it's their job, for which they are being paid.

Got really annoyed watching Back in Time for School yesterday when the teacher said 'you are writing to a perspective employer' not prospective. Almost as bad as a pacific not a specific one!

That is infuriating