Paper Monitor
10:54 UK time, Thursday, 4 December 2008
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
It's December, snow is falling and the papers mark the start of the festive version of silly season.
The Sun does this with a front page crusade (yesterday and today) against the "blunderland" that is a Lapland theme park in Dorset run by a man whose entrepreneurial brainwave was to "stick a few things in a field, make a load of money and bolt off. Once we've got people inside and they've paid their money there's nothing they can do." Not an obvious candidate for Dragons' Den then.
No-one likes a fraudster and especially not a festive fraudster, taking advantage of the season of good cheer so the Sun goes for it all guns blazing. Ex-employees, or "Santa's little helpers" describe the nightmare of working in the "grotty grotto" providing pictures of some of the less than authentic attractions including a snowman in a baggy costume and a fake polar bear.
Reading this story, Paper Monitor is reminded of its own personal campaign - to highlight uses of journalese - words/phrases/expressions beloved of hacks and headline writers that you just don't hear in normal conversation.
Christmas is on everyone's lips, but for your average sub trying to boil down an entire story into a few snappy words Christmas has one major downside - it's too long. To quote (albeit out of context) one of Paper Monitor's long-suffering journalism tutors from way back when: Christmas is cancelled. Indeed, Mr F. The word every sub reaches for at this time of year is "Xmas". (Although not on the 91Èȱ¬ News website, where style guidelines insist Xmas "should NEVER be used - despite its attractions for the headline writer short of space".)
The Sun is full of journalese today: "FOOTIE ACE 'GANG SEX ASSAULT' IN SHOWERS". Ace? Useful to fit into an otherwise wordy headline but really, is it ever spoken?
"Tot" and "cop" are two oft-used journalese darlings, being oh so teeny-tiny: "Jail for tot car killer" and "Bent cop is caged".
And is any self-respecting tabloid complete without mention of a "romp"? Today's culprit being The Sun's "Amy gives Blake romp in hospital."
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