Dog’s dicks are important*
The Beeb's coverage of the Twitter Joke Trial latest contains this:
Paul Chambers was found guilty in May, convicted of sending a menacing electronic communication when he tweeted: "Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week..otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high".
But... that wasn't the tweet. The tweet was:
Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!
The BBC, under a mass of compliance and not wanting to offend the Daily Mail by using the actual quote, which had such rude and dirty words as 'shit' and 'crap' in it, have actually made this rather misleading. I stress this isn't on purpose, but it is nevertheless misleading.
Also, two exclamation marks. Two! Count them. The BBC article has missed them off as well. If you weren't familiar with the original quote, the absence of those dog's dicks, plus the absence of the swearing, certainly changes the tone. And given that tone is what this entire thing is about, I think you need the quote verbatim.
It just goes to show. Swearing is important, especially when the use of a casual swear changes the tone of the content. And dog's dicks, as all dogs know, are important too.
Happily, the Beeb have now put the quote in verbatim. Just one dog's dick, but hey, it's progress.
* Dog's dick, n. Dusty old newspaper slang for an exclamation mark. Last used in anger by bearded man in corduroy jacket c. 1983.
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Hello. I'm a Bristol-based writer and soon-to-be-redundant journalist. You can read more about me and the Enemies site here, or follow me on Twitter. Email me if you like - antonvowl at live dot co dot uk
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November 12th, 2010 - 16:41
The whole BBC coverage of this has been shite. They keep referring to him as a “bomb hoaxer”, despite the fact that the first thing established by the court was that he wasn’t charged with sending a bomb hoax (as he didn’t).
November 12th, 2010 - 16:56
The BBC report has “Crap!” and one of the exclamation marks now.
November 12th, 2010 - 16:59
Shame this report is still wrong though
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-11736785
November 14th, 2010 - 11:25
Google SideWiki comment added. Well if they won’t allow comments on their news articles…
November 12th, 2010 - 17:00
Quite!
This whole thing is a steam pile of barely digested nonsense.
November 12th, 2010 - 17:00
Someone also mentioned that it was an @reply tweet. Do you know if that’s the case?
November 12th, 2010 - 19:54
It wasn’t.
November 12th, 2010 - 17:01
And we now have exclamation mark #2, and ironically, ‘shit’ too..
November 12th, 2010 - 17:05
At the newspaper I worked at in Yorkshire it was known as a “dog’s cock” rather than a dick. And it was still heard very occasionally in the early 90s, when we still used to cut and paste the pages together.
November 12th, 2010 - 18:24
Has anyone been following the #IAmSpartacus stuff?! Lots of fun.
November 12th, 2010 - 19:35
Dogs’ dicks are still prevalent in my office! As a relative newbie, I have never been quite sure why. I’m neither a vet nor a dog-bummer, so I don’t have too much knowledge of what a dog’s dick looks like, but I bet the glans isn’t separated from the shaft by a gap.
November 13th, 2010 - 21:50
I hope you realise you’re now number one in the Google search for dog’s dicks.
November 14th, 2010 - 02:19
I think the BBC should have quoted the tweet in full and uncensored.
November 18th, 2010 - 07:48
Charlie Brook was SUPERB on this in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/15/charlie-brooker-twitter-terror-conviction
Excellent blog by the way, thanks!
November 18th, 2010 - 07:50
P.S. I found you via this, which I expect you have known about for ages.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/welcome-to-planet-blog-how-blogging-has-taken-over-the-world-2063194.html
November 18th, 2010 - 08:17
Charlie Brook was SUPERB on this in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/15/charlie-brooker-twitter-terror-conviction
Excellent blog by the way, thanks!
P.S. I found you via this, which you’ve probably known about for ages:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/welcome-to-planet-blog-how-blogging-has-taken-over-the-world-2063194.html