AIBU to really struggle to understand what on earth is actually going on in this BBC article?

[BlueJuniper94]

Is it just me or is this very confusing

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg34410dx7o

quatlrters? 🤔😂

Muphry's Law at work there, methinks !

Well, apart from wasting my time, this is MN, so it might be "triggering".

The irony of wanting to police and judge other people for using what Esme sees as inappropriate language around children, when presumably Esme uses language to refer to Esme's self and requires that others to use Esme's chosen languafe in Esme's presence, concerning matters of Esme's gender identity.

Which the children and/or possibly their parents may find problematic and inappropriate.

Seems clear enough to me. Major problems at Bangor Cathedral where those who should have been in charge were asleep at the wheel. Other people, who should have known better, took advantage. Result - trouble.

They missed a trick not interviewing Bangor Cathedral's most famous choirboy ever - Aled Jones. Though I guess the journalists have probably not heard of him.

Yikes!!!!

Murphy's fat fingers and hay fever sneezes are not a good combination :-)

I bet they use AI proof readers to keep costs down. I think loads of media outlets do this now. Maybe the whole thing has been written by AI? The BBC is totally cash strapped

Referring to someone as "she", or using her name, as you are, is in no way comparable to drinking and making explicit sexual jokes in front of children. Of course you know that.

I posted this and thought there had been no replies- just realised now there have been and looking back at the article I think it has been edited

I think I would rather have some more clarity on how a "drinking culture" would develop in such a context. For me it raises more questions than it answers. Clearly there are issues but it's not obvious to me exactly what is actually going on there, the article is a badly written mess.

I got the gist of it, but I agree that it is really badly written. The BBC's reporting seems to be getting worse - I do wonder if AI is taking over!

It's definitely changed
It never started with "some priests and choir members...."

It wasn't bullet points as such.

But as if we're a BP list (just without the BPs)

Like this
Orange Frenzy Hits The UK
Oranges are fruit
People are buying lots of them
Unusual because actually oranges have been slow selling recently.

Like it's all just pending an actual article.

I'd just seen a thread on X about this. My issue was my confusion and frustration when trying to read and understand this article. I understand the BBC is in charge of state propaganda but its far more effective when it's of much higher quality.

There's plenty of background via the links in the article. The full safeguarding reports won't have been publicly available, just a summary. I'd guess the drinking culture developed because no one stopped it. The detail is doubtless part of the reports but the journalists won't have that information, unless someone was prepared to tell them. And the problems were more than the drinking culture.

Why do you think that the BBC is in charge of state propaganda?

They're the state broadcaster. That, and all the transparent ways they're constantly trying to engineer public opinion.

Unless they're forcing the congregation to drink during services - isn't this just parishioners who enjoy drinking and time at the pub? If this was a workplace, and I suspect that there's many, how on earth is it a news story?

@BlueJuniper94 It wasn't the congregation who were doing the drinking, often excessively, at any opportunity (according to the bishop's report). Some of the clergy and others on the staff were knocking it back quite freely, and not in the pub. Not to mention the sexual assault allegedly carried out by a drunken would-be priest. There's also the financial irregularities, inappropriate language round children and lack of DBS checking
Not your average workplace?

I’m late to the thread, but have some local knowledge of the situation. Interesting reading all your responses to this article. I’m currently involved in a complaint with the BBC regarding this article as I think it contains misinformation and is misleading.

@Bridport and others - it is certainly a poorly written article. It’s not even obvious what it is about. Is it about drinking culture, or safeguarding, or sexual assault? The last of which would surely be the most significant.

@SunShow - it is certainly not headline newsworthy, in my opinion

My original complaint to the BBC was based on the factual inaccuracies that Esmé’s account contains. For example, Esmé mentions children in the choir as young as six or seven which is untrue - the youngest at that time was eight and the others would have been older. She implies that she had close contact with the children and yet none of the younger kids from that time can remember her.

The article certainly appears to have changed - in the earlier version it referred to ‘choristers’ (which seems to have changed to ‘choir members’). In the choir we use that term for kids up to sixteen, so it’s slightly misleading as it implies that the kids drinking alcohol. Which they weren’t.

@BlueJuniper94 - This has certainly opened my eyes to how journalists operate and how events or phrases can be used out-of-context and end up portraying a very different picture to the one that I have of these ‘goings on’.

It looks to me that the picture purporting to be of Esme Bird is a man?