Lee Cattermole and how BBC English spells trouble


This is a headline from the BBC website today:

Reputation preceeds me – Sunderland midfielder Cattermole

I wouldn’t mind betting Lee has already been in touch to complain. Perhaps a yellow card is in order for someone in Auntie’s team.

More seriously, the world is clearly coming to an end if the BBC has made illiteracy a condition of employment.

The link, which includes an interview in which Lee insists he is not a dirty player but a victim of his reputation, is here. The headline may well be corrected as time passes.

Monsieur Salut

5 thoughts on “Lee Cattermole and how BBC English spells trouble”

  1. Must admit I had to check that spelling(precedes),you would expect a professional journalist to get it right though.

    Cattermole is a bit of a liability.He is a hard tackler but he makes too many errors and his direct style makes him an easy target for refs if he mistimes.
    Personally I think he is limited, skill wise, at this level,maybe he tries too hard to show an example as captain.If he did not have to worry about leading he would tone it down a bit and relax a bit more instead of always jumping straight in.

  2. There is BBC reporter (can’t remember who) who frequently sends in pieces to Radio 4 who says “must of, could of” etc. That’s my big grammatical bugbear!

    • Preceeds is not a word in any dictionary I use. That makes me a pedant but it annoys me that people paid decent money to work in the English language, and at the BBC of all places, should make such basic errors, still uncorrected when I looked a few minutes ago.

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