I get a sense ...

Some years ago the BBC must have been rolling out classes for their staff, specifically about a new word. It wasn't actually a 'new word' but an old word they wanted used frequently from then on, in an inappropriate way. The word was 'sense' - to be used nonsensically.

It didn't matter if they were using it to talk about the weather, the findings of an inquiry, or in the thick of a 'theatre of war'. It was always 'I sense' so and so. I thought reporting was supposed to be just that - reporting facts, with perhaps a little personal opinion thrown in based on something real.

So now, even the newsreader says to the reporter in the field 'what do you sense happened'. I would like the reporter to say 'I really haven't a clue, there's no evidence either way' but of course they come up with some rubbish.

Naturally, with the BBC brandishing their 'new word' it wasn't going to be contained ... and on Sky News, I think it was, a short while ago - there was the intrepid reporter out in Los Angeles 'reporting' on the investigation of Michael Jackson's death. We were waiting for Michael's doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray, to arrive to be charged in connection with the death. The media was everywhere - the lorries and vans parked in rows left and right of the screen. They may have filled up that car park area completely for all I know, but the reporter said something like 'I sense there's intense media interest in this'. I ask you!

I sense I'm going to finish now.