02-10-2022, 11:14 AM
Memories get skewed because only the "notable" junctions turn up online, the bog standard ones that pass without incident are underrepresented.
Going back to the point about accents - I don't think that's the factor here. I don't remember any particular controversy when Mark Chapman was announcing on network BBC with his Mancunian accent.
I think there are two separate issues which have been identified: delivery, such as a jarringly cheerful announcement into a serious programme; and non-standard diction/pronunciation such as "wiv" and "da" instead of "with" and "the".
The former is hard to be charitable about, but I don't have a particular problem with the latter being represented amongst a team of announcers, but when linking into a formal occasion it jars a bit.
But then if they had switched out the scheduled announcer for somebody with a more standard delivery you can guarantee that somebody would have tried to make a racism scandal out of it.
Lose/lose really.
Going back to the point about accents - I don't think that's the factor here. I don't remember any particular controversy when Mark Chapman was announcing on network BBC with his Mancunian accent.
I think there are two separate issues which have been identified: delivery, such as a jarringly cheerful announcement into a serious programme; and non-standard diction/pronunciation such as "wiv" and "da" instead of "with" and "the".
The former is hard to be charitable about, but I don't have a particular problem with the latter being represented amongst a team of announcers, but when linking into a formal occasion it jars a bit.
But then if they had switched out the scheduled announcer for somebody with a more standard delivery you can guarantee that somebody would have tried to make a racism scandal out of it.
Lose/lose really.