The language of Euromyths.

I’ve only just come across (thanks) the EU press office site set up specifically to bebunk myths about the EU which spring up in the British Press and feed the British (English?) imagination. I mention it here because I enjoy the tone of voice in the blurb which tells us: “The European Commission’s Press Office in London monitors the British press’s highly distorted coverage of the European Union. Euromyths are scare stories based on hearsay, rumours and half-truths, many of which have been repeated so often that they have become accepted truths within the public and media consciousness. The A-Z that follows is often ridiculous and sometimes amusing. But the serious question here is about the journalistic integrity of a press that denies the British public the truth about the policies and institutions of the European Union.

It is this sort of confident conversational style that is so lacking in government based communication. Next step of course could be to allow commenst of turn the list into a wiki so we can all post pictures of straight bananas.

6 comments

  1. dp says:

    Hi Nick. bebunk I like. It’s a neologism with legs. Maybe lil’ stubby ones, but perhaps we can help it along. What’s it mean? My guess is that it’s a back formation from bunkum, which is in turn a special language used by B-flexive corporate linguists, evidenced by Be, Birmingham, and Jon Bounds/a>. What say yow?

    As for the debunkenment, my faves are Barmaids, Truckers’ fry ups and Oak trees. What’s more, some of the responses revert back to type in terms of their impenetrable language. So, how much effort for nought?

  2. dp says:

    what platform are you running here? Worpal? droomla? thruppenceapart? If it’s drupal you go hither and yon in the guts and add the tags you want us to use.

  3. dp says:

    Thanks for asking. I think the ability to add links and basic formatting is pretty standard. So, , , (, ). You might want to limit the number of links per comment to something like 3.

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