Or is anyone else driven mad by the phrase “The BBC has learnt”.  NO.  The BBC has not learnt.  How can ‘The BBC’ learn? It is an inanimate object with thousands of people working for it.  They even do it when it is obvious that the reporter  has been in a press conference with a load of other journalists or is holding a press release in their hand.

Should we start sending out releases that begin “EML has learnt that Cambridge Consultants/CSR/Cognovo are announcing today that…”.  I don’t think so. The BBC, and all other broadcasters, are meant to be there to report the news of the day, impartially and as factually correct as possible. They are not there to bolster the corporation’s ego or their own cleverness.  Just tell us it how it is, please.

I see this as lazy journalism, the easy way to start a story, but maybe I am wrong and it is just  me.