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Ignorant Journalists

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Leoba
Post subject: Ignorant Journalists
Posted: Wed 05 Jan , 2005 12:50 pm
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I'm having a very easily irritated week and if one more ill-educated idiot tries to communicate with me by mumbling into the phone as they miss out half the consonants in their words I will probably snap and tell them to take some elocution lessons.

But that's not really what I'm ranting about here. I just read this charming article on the BBC, which details how the area around Sarehole and Moesley has been renamed 'The Shire Country Park'. Why then did the Beeb employ someone who has patently never read Tolkien to write their article. I've highlighted the most offensive bits. :rage:


Quote:

Nature reserve remembers Baggins

A Birmingham nature reserve that provided JRR Tolkien with much of the inspiration for his classic fantasy novels is to be renamed in his honour.
The city's Millstream Project will now be called The Shire Country Park.

The park links a four-mile, wooded walk along the River Cole and the Chinn Brook. It includes Moseley Bog, one of Tolkien's favourite childhood haunts.

In his books, The Shires are the Middle Earth home of Bilbo Baggins and his fellow hobbits.

The name change results from consultations between environmental groups that look after the nature reserve, the Tolkien Society and members of Birmingham City Council.

John Alden, the local authority's cabinet member for leisure, sport and culture, said: "It is appropriate that Birmingham should recognise JRR Tolkien and his writing in this way.

"Internationally acclaimed as a writer, he is an important part of the city's cultural heritage.

Bronze Age

"The Shire Country Park will help raise the awareness of Tolkien's close ties with the city and attract visitors from far and wide, keen to discover the places that were such an important influence on the writer."

Tolkien, who was born in South Africa on January 3, 1892 but moved to Birmingham at the age of three, is credited with using actual places for fictional locations in his books.

Moseley Bog, which dates back to the Bronze Age, is thought to have inspired the "Old Forest" in the Lord of the Rings, the last of the primeval woods in which Tom Bombardil lived.

Sarehole Mill, near the former family home on Wake Green Road and now a museum, is viewed as being the "great mill" of The Shires.

The 96ft-high Perrot's Folly and the nearby Waterworks Tower, in Edgbaston, are also seen by many as the real-life counterparts of the Twin Towers of Gondor.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/e ... 147809.stm

Published: 2005/01/05 08:16:19 GMT

© BBC MMV

This is 'just' literature, so I suppose only geeks like me (or you) get annoyed, but I've lost count of the number of times the press gets the simplest political things wrong. And the public get all on their high horses, because they've been spoon-fed crap and think it's true. :roll:

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Dindraug
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Posted: Wed 05 Jan , 2005 1:36 pm
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LOL, they changed The Shires, but not the other bits. Must have recieved complaints.

and calm down babe, thinbk of the Dolphins...or the Delphinians as the BBC would have us read :LMAO: :LMAO: :LMAO:

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Leoba
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Posted: Wed 05 Jan , 2005 1:52 pm
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I just went back in and they've now changed 'Twin Towers' and 'Bombardil' as well. I can breathe easier.

Though I still take umbrage at the assertion that it is the 'Two Towers of Gondor' that Tolkien referred to in his title. For me, it was always a reference to Minas Tirith and Minas Ithil/Morgul (the latter most certainly not being a 'tower of Gondor' by the close of the third age). Or possibly Minas Tirith versus Barad-dur. Was it ever specified by the Professor himself? I certainly never came across Orthanc being an option until late 2002.

Last edited by Leoba on Wed 05 Jan , 2005 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Dindraug
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Posted: Wed 05 Jan , 2005 1:59 pm
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I always thought it was Orthanc and Barad Dur as Minas Tirith has only a couple of mentions in TTT. Or possibly Cirith Ungol is in there someplace.

Confusing :Q

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Berhael
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Posted: Wed 05 Jan , 2005 2:43 pm
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I have my own personal war with the BBC website... I remember emailing them once to correct someone who had written about "the island of Gibraltar". :roll:

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EdaintheRanger
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Posted: Wed 05 Jan , 2005 5:03 pm
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Well I thought that the "Two Towers" were the Tower of the Sun (Guard in TTA) and the Tower of the Moon. Or Minas Tirith and Minas Morgul respectively. However looking at the towers in my mind's eye, the water tower is a oblongular square Victorian monstrosity, which made me think of Barad Dur, while Perrot's Folly being a round, thin, tower made me think of Orthanc. :mrgreen:

The answer to your question Leoba, I believe lies in "Letters", though I'd rather not be trolling through that today.

Funny you should mention Gibraltar, Ber; I thought it was an island also until I came to study the War of the Spanish Succession. *Rolls eyes*

I read about the renaming of the park in my local newspaper, and I didn't notice any glaring discrepancies. Darn I'll have to go back and look. Having done the Brum Tolkien trail twice now, I'm glad the stupid Brummies are belatedly getting on the Tolkien bandwagon. I wonder if I still have the Tolkien Trail leaflet somewhere...

As for not researching their topics properly, that's just a damned bad show of sloppy, unprofessionalism on the drunken hack's part. I certainly take a large pinch of salt when reading the paper's these days.

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Lidless
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Posted: Wed 05 Jan , 2005 5:50 pm
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The middle volume contained so many varied lines of action that Tolkien seems to have found some trouble naming it.

I am not at all happy about the title 'the Two Towers'. It must if there is any real reference in it to Vol II refer to Orthanc and the Tower of Cirith Ungol. But since there is so much made of the basic opposition of the Dark Tower and Minas Tirith, that seems very misleading.
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien No 143, 1954

Tolkien also considered at least five other combinations of the towers of Barad-dûr, Cirith Ungol, Minas Morgul, Minas Tirith and Orthanc, and it seems that he never settled on a definitive identity for them. The one PJ used - Orthanc and Barad-dûr, was one of them.

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Dindraug
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Posted: Wed 05 Jan , 2005 6:31 pm
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Gibralter is not an Island :oops:

I always get confused with our offland territories. Is it in France then?


five......four....three......two.......eeep!

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Jaeniver
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Posted: Wed 05 Jan , 2005 7:16 pm
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Take deep breaths Leoba dear and slooooooooowly exhale. It's not their fault, really it is not ;) .....okay so it is but they an't help it.

and i always thought it was Orthanc and Barad-Dur. :neutral:

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Eruname
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Posted: Wed 05 Jan , 2005 7:36 pm
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You emailed them and got them to change it didn't you Leoba? ;)

I always thought it was Orthanc and Barad-dur as well...they really were the two central towers of that book. At least it's a common misconception and I don't feel too dumb!

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eärendil
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Posted: Wed 05 Jan , 2005 10:58 pm
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Leoba, it's the same everywhere, when you know a subject you realise how much crap those idiot write.

I remember my dad getting mad at the TV guy cause he was saying crap and more crap about health policy in France and explaining it wrongly :roll:. They don't know what they are talking/writing about but do it none the less...

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Rholarowyn
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Posted: Sun 09 Jan , 2005 6:55 pm
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So it's not just American journalists who get it wrong. Why does this give me an odd sense of relief? :scratch
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truehobbit
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Posted: Sun 09 Jan , 2005 8:55 pm
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TheLidlessEyes wrote:
The middle volume contained so many varied lines of action that Tolkien seems to have found some trouble naming it.

I am not at all happy about the title 'the Two Towers'. It must if there is any real reference in it to Vol II refer to Orthanc and the Tower of Cirith Ungol. But since there is so much made of the basic opposition of the Dark Tower and Minas Tirith, that seems very misleading.
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien No 143, 1954

Tolkien also considered at least five other combinations of the towers of Barad-dûr, Cirith Ungol, Minas Morgul, Minas Tirith and Orthanc, and it seems that he never settled on a definitive identity for them. The one PJ used - Orthanc and Barad-dûr, was one of them.
Who are you and what have you done with lidless?

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Eruname
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Posted: Sun 09 Jan , 2005 11:44 pm
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I don't know why Rho, but I kind of feel the same way. :P

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Snowdog
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Posted: Wed 11 Jan , 2006 8:17 pm
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Rholarowyn wrote:
So it's not just American journalists who get it wrong. Why does this give me an odd sense of relief? :scratch
Its a journalism thing. They got it right in the last Harry Potter film. They hear what the want in the interview....

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Meneltarma
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Posted: Wed 11 Jan , 2006 8:25 pm
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We avoid any form of journalism related to medicine or literature in my house. Someone's sure to burst a blood vessel.
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Ara-anna
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Posted: Wed 11 Jan , 2006 8:43 pm
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The Shires

Thats where Shireslings are from. Also know as hafling. And Aragon is the King of Gondor. And Elron has another brother named Bubba. And Arwen is played by Jessica Simpson.

And Christopher Tolkien probably got mad.

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eborr
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Posted: Wed 11 Jan , 2006 11:04 pm
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of course Gibralter is an Island, it's an Island of Englsihness in the midst of all those foriegners after Sir Bufton Tufton MP
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Onizuka Eikichi
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Posted: Thu 12 Jan , 2006 12:34 am
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I know what you mean. That fool Mike Savage was on the radio the other day complaining about Chinese restaurants, and long story short, he eventually comes to say, "What? The gaijin doesn't know the difference?"

Gaijin is a Japanese word. Not Chinese. 外人 <-- The kanji literally translate to "outside person" or "outsider."

See? Stupid crap like that really makes me angry. The Chinese probably use the same kanji for the same word, but it would most certainly be pronounced differently in Chinese. Gaijin is the Japanese word\pronunciation.

Anyway. Continue please.

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Nienor SharkAttack
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Posted: Thu 12 Jan , 2006 7:38 am
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Journalists + Tolkien = hopeless. :roll:

My local paper did a thing like this about a year ago. I wrote them a long, angry letter explaining a thing or five - and they actually printed it! :D

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