The Rev Roger Roberts put his foot right into his mouth and then swallowed it when he averred the failure to launch a Welsh-language daily paper was of little matter – because we’ve already got a daily paper on the web …
Mr Roberts is well known politically as the perennial Liberal Democrat candidate who came so close to winning the Conwy Westminster constituency.
Asked where this Welsh-language daily could be found on the web, the newly-appointed president of the exiles’ organisation Wales and the World pointed to the BBC web-site.
Now, I’ve nothing against the Beeb’s Welsh web-site; it’s incredibly valuable and knocks Trinity Mirror’s attempt into a cocked hat, despite Media Wales’s recent improvement. The Beeb’s is better because it is often searchable, and seems to be put together by humans rather than logarithmic machines.
The Rev Rog claimed that the BBC’s Welsh site is updated every minute.
When informed after the Eisteddfod press conference where he delivered his paeon of praise that much of the Beeb site is days and even weeks old, he lamely replied, “Well, that’s what the BBC claims…”
The Rev Rog seems to be falling – despite his age, he’s 72 – firstly for propaganda, and then for novelty. Because it’s often said, it must be true; and because it’s new, it must be good.
The BBC web-sites in all their varieties certainly get often quoted – usually, it must be said, for reporting other peoples’ press releases.
But has anyone asked why the Beeb’s form of spoken journalism is so often retailed to a wider world ? Surely, because it’s so easily available in printed form (by use of the control-P keys). Until a few years ago, this happened far less frequently.
People were far less happy to report what they thought they had heard on the radio or telly it was so easy to get it wrong. It’s only since the Beeb has gone as far as it can towards producing a printed newspaper that Dear Old Aunty has made such an impact.
Plaid Cymru is already having tentative second thoughts about their premature killing of the Byd project. Unfortunately, the party’s higher echelons seem to be saying a revival will have to wait three years for another Assembly general election.
Perhaps for a revival of a Rainbow Coalition with the Cons and Lib Dems… But some people don’t want to wait that long.
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