Mass Media Language

The world of the media is an area where it is important not to confuse the object with the language. There are newspapers; there is radio; there is television. But there is no such thing as a variety of newspaper language; or of radio language; or of television language. The media reflect all aspects of the human condition, and make available to the public many varieties of language already well known elsewhere, such as those associated with religion, politics, science, and literature, and the more topic-directed aspects of conversation (e.g. discussion, interview, debate, argument). When we apply the notion of a language variety to the media, we have to look within each product (a newspaper, a radio or TV channel) for uses of language which have been shaped by the nature of the medium, or whose purpose is to make use of the capabilities provided by the medium. And here, the communication and presentation of news is dominant.

The reporting of news, whether in the spoken or written media, reflects one of the most difficult and constraining situations to be found in the area of language use. The chief constraint is the perpetual battle against the pressures of time and space. These pressures are absolutes. To fit a column, 20 words need to be cut. To fit a radio window, 16 seconds of a script may need to go. There is no argument. If the writer of the original material does not meet the demand, someone else higher up the editorial chain of command will do it instead. The average news report, whether printed or broadcast, is the product of many hands , journalists, editors (chief / check / copy / page sub-editors), typesetters, proofreaders, compositors, printers.

There are several distinctive linguistic features of the reporting. Most relate fairly to those who, when, where, what, how and why, which journalists bear in mind when compiling a story.

· The headline is critical, summarizing and drawing attention to the story. Its telegraphic style is probably the best-known feature of news reporting.

· The first (lead paragraph both summarizes and begins to tell the story. This paragraph is the source of the headline.

· The original source of the story is given, either in by-line (Reuters), or built into the text (A senior White House official said).

· The participants are categorized, their name usually being preceded by a general term (champ, prisoner, official) and adjectives (handsome French singer J. Bruno).

· Other features include explicit time and place location (In Paris yesterday), facts and figures (56 people were killed in a bomb blast), and direct or indirect quotations (PM bungles, says expert).

Broadcasting

In contrast with most newspapers, only a small part of radio and television output is devoted to news and its discussion (current affairs) as little as 5 per cent, on some channels but its significance is perceived to be far greater than this small figure suggests. The core element in this output is well-defined: the news bulletin, consisting of a series of items of varying size, often divided into sections (e.g. general, business, sport, weather), sometimes punctuated by advertising. Each of them fits into a format which may be of any length, but often as short as two minutes.

Analysis of a typical day's radio or television broadcasting brings to light several varieties of language which are in use elsewhere. Indeed, probably all conceivable spoken varieties will be found at some point or other in the broadcasting media. If a use of language is important enough to develop predictable linguistic features, the situations to which they relate are undoubtedly going to be of regular interests to listeners and viewers. The only constraint is sensitivity to taboo words.

Weather reporting is one of the best examples, especially on radio where, in its specialized form, it is reduced to its bare essentials, as a restricted language. The names of the Meteorological Office sea areas surrounding the British Isles provide British English with some of the most distinctive weather-forecasting lexicon. Along the well-known areas such as Irish Sea, Plymouth, Portland, Thames, there exist a great deal of new coinages applied to meteorological regions, for example, Viking, Cromarty, Dogger, Forties ( in the east), Shannon, Rockall, Bailey (in the west), or even more confusing phrases North Utsire and South Utsire (the western parts of the Scandinavian Peninsula). Most people know at least some of the names by heart, though few could locate more than a handful with any accuracy.

Two contrasting styles informal and conversational or formal and formulaic are used on BBC Radio in weather forecasting. A successful weather forecast is a mixture of fluent spontaneity, controlled informality and friendly authority.

The fluency is partly a matter of careful preparation, but is largely achieved through the broadcaster`s ability to rely on formulaic phrasing (with light winds and largely clear skies, blue skies and sunshine, widespread frost) and on standard sequences of locations. The number of likely weather situations is really quite limited in a particular region, and certain combinations of features frequently recur.

The conversational tone may be achieved through the use of:

· informal lexicon (take a tumble, just a chance, odd rogue shower);

· everyday turns of phrase which ordinary people use about the weather (become a little bit quieter, turn colder);

· fuzzy expressions (more or less, round about);

· contracted verbs (it`s, that`s, we`ll);

· colloquial sentence connection (anyhow, in actual fact).

At the same time, the scientific element in the weather forecast message is evident in the numerical underpinning (eight degrees, minus one or minus two) and the reference to notions which are generally not found in the speech of the amateur (icy patches on untreated roads, well broken cloud, south-westerly wind).

Commentary is one of the most distinctive of all uses of English. Its roles extend well beyond broadcasting. It will be heard in such varied contexts as fashion shows, race-course meetings, and cookery demonstrations. Within broadcasting the use of commentary extends beyond sporting occasions. It will be heard accompanying such public events as inaugurations, funerals and other processions.

But the most frequent kinds of commentary are those associated with sports and games. Here, two elements need to be distinguished: the play-by-play commentary, and the colour-added commentary. The latter is important, for it provides an audience with pre-event background, post-event evaluation, and within-event interpretation. But there is little to be said about it stylistically: it is conversational in style, and often in dialogue form. Consider a fragment of colour commentary: It was two dollars before and I just think something`s wrong with those dividends that are showing up on our screen. They`ve got Speedy Cheval the favourite but I`m not exactly sure that that`s correct, but anyway they`re in behind the mobile going towards the starting point now for the first heat of the Lion Brown Rising Star Three-Year-Old Championship just about there.

Stylistic interest in commentary lies chiefly in the play-by-play component.

Because commentary is an oral reporting of ongoing activity, it is unlike other kinds of narrative which are typically reported in past time. Indeed, it is unlike any other kind of speech situation. US linguist Charles Ferguson (1983, p. 156) captured its uniqueness when he described radio sports casting as a monolog or dialog-on-stage directed at an unknown, unseen, heterogeneous mass audience who voluntarily choose to listen, do not see the activity being reported, and provide no feedback to the speaker. If such a strange activity is to survive, and to be successful in maintaining fluency and listener interest, it needs special linguistic features.

Sports commentary is not identified by its vocabulary: sporting terms and idioms can be found elsewhere, such as in press reports and everyday chat. Other factors are more distinctive:

· It is extremely fluent, keeping up with the pace of the activities. The rate is steady, and there is little sign of hesitation noises, false starts, comment clauses, nonsense words, and other features of spontaneous speech.

· The prosody is suited to the sport, reflecting the atmosphere and drama. Some very unusual prosodies can be heard, and speeds of articulation which differ greatly from everyday conversations (both slower and faster). Some sports (such as horse racing) may be spoken in a monotone, either loudly (as in horse racing) or softly (as in snooker). Others make use of wide variations in pitch range (as in football or baseball). A commentator may have a favourite way of pointing ` a commentary, and idiosyncrasy can be strong.

· Distinctive grammar is seen in the use of the Present tense (he sends it back); the omission of elements of sentence structure (Gooch in close), inverted word order (over at third is Smith), and extra modifiers (The quiet Texan Tommy John delivers ; and Smith, who `s scored well this season, runs back). The frequent use of the Passive is another survival ` device: often commentators see a play before they can identify the player, and the Passive (perhaps with a tell-tale pause) allows them to delay mentioning the player `s name (His shot is blocked by Jones).

· Discourse structure is cyclical, reflecting the way most games consist of recurring sequences of short activities (as in cricket, tennis, and baseball) or a limited numbers of activity options (as in the various kinds of football ). In racing, the structure is even simpler, the cycling here regularly informing the listener of the varying order of the competitors, with each loop ` of the cycle introduced by its own formulae. This is a state of play ` summary, crucial for listeners / viewers who have just switched on or who have simply lost track of what `s happening.

Commercial Advertising

Commercial advertising is the largest and most visible form of advertising; but by no means the only one. Political speeches, sermons, and several other uses of language can be said to be selling something `. There is also an overlap with announcements, such as births and deaths (a type of prestige advertising), legal notices, health warnings, and other items whose functions are chiefly to inform. But commercial advertising stands out stylistically on several counts. Like literature, it can employ other varieties of language in its service: any fragments of the human condition (and a fair amount of non-human condition) can be found in an ad. Lexically, it tends to use words which are vivid (new, bright), concrete (soft, washable), positive (safe, extra), and universal (best, perfect). Grammatically, it is typically conversational and elliptical and often, as a result, vague (A better deal [than what?]). It uses highly figurative expressions (taste the sunshine in K Y peaches), deviant graphology (Beanz Meanz Heinz), and strong sound effects, such as rhythm, alliteration, and rhyme, especially in slogans. It can make effective use of word-play. On television it is also likely to be dramatized and vocalized. Radio uses sound effects, songs and accents to provide a varied brand-name profile.

The Use of Language in Newspapers

English newspaper writing dates from the 17th century. The first newspapers carried only news, without comments, as commenting was considered to be against the principles of journalism. By the 19th century, newspaper language was recognized as a particular variety of style, characterized by a specific communicative purpose and its own system of language means.

It includes a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means serving the purpose of informing, instructing and, in addition, of entertaining the reader. As a result of this diversity of purposes, newspapers contain not only strictly informational, but also evaluative material - comments and views of the news-writers, especially characteristic of editorials and feature articles.

Not all the printed matter found in newspapers come under newspaper style. The modern newspaper carries material of an extremely diverse character. On the pages of a newspaper one finds not only news and comments on it, but also stories and poems, crossword puzzles, and the like. Since these serve the purpose of entertaining the reader, they cannot be considered specimens of newspaper style. Nor can articles in special fields, such as science and technology, art, literature, etc. be classed as belonging to newspaper style.

Since the primary function of a newspaper is to impart information, only printed matter serving this purpose comes under newspaper language variety. Such matter can be classed as:

1. brief news items and communiquйs;

2. press reports (parliamentary, of court proceedings, etc.);

3. articles purely informational in character;

4. advertisements and announcements.

The function of brief news items, communiquйs and reports is to inform the reader. They state only facts without giving commentary. This accounts for the total absence of any individuality of expression and the lack of emotional colouring. The vocabulary used here is neutral and common literary. It is essentially matter-of-fact, and stereotypical forms of expression prevail. But apart from this, a newspaper has its specific vocabulary that can be found in its other features - editorials, articles, and advertisements.

As the newspaper also seeks to influence public opinion on various social, political or moral matters, its language frequently contains vocabulary with evaluative connotation, such as to allege (the person who allegedly committed the crime), to claim (the defendant claims to know nothing about it). These cast some doubt on what is stated further and make it clear to the reader that those are not yet affirmed facts. Elements of appraisal may be observed in the very selection and way of presenting the news, not only in the use of specific vocabulary but in syntactic constructions indicating a lack of surety on the part of the reporter as to the correctness of the facts reported or his/her desire to avoid responsibility, e.g., Mr. J Brown was said to have opposed the proposal. He was quoted as saying… (The Complex Subject).

The headlines of news items, apart from giving information about the subject-matter, also carry a considerable amount of appraisal (the size and placement of the headline, the use of emotionally coloured words and elements of emotive syntax), thus indicating an interpretation of the facts in the news item that follows.

But the principle vehicle of interpretation and appraisal is the newspaper article, and the editorial, in particular. Editorials (leading articles ) are characterized by a subjective handling of facts, political or otherwise, and therefore have more in common with political essays or articles and should rather be classed as belonging to the publicistic style than to the newspaper. However, newspaper publicistic writing bears the stamp of its own style. Though it seems natural to consider newspaper articles, editorials included, as coming within the system of English newspaper style, it is necessary to note that such articles are an intermediate phenomenon characterized by a combination of styles - the newspaper style and the publicistic style. In other words, they may be considered hybrids.

The bulk of the vocabulary used in newspaper writing is neutral and literary. But it has as well its specific features such as the intensive use of:

a) Special political and economic terms, e.g., stability, elections, anti-terror war, military facilities, terrorist network, opinion polls, human rights, budget deficit, immigration, presidential vote, race, opponent, business, security, to devastate, blast.

b) Non-term political words, e.g., officials, hostages, kidnappers, protest, breakdown, regime, local terror cells, popularity rating, emergency anti-terror funding. A characteristic feature of political vocabulary is that the borderline between terms and non-terms is less distinct than in the vocabulary of other special fields. The semantic structure of some words comprises both terms and non-terms, e.g., crisis, agreement, progressive, nationwide, unity.

c) Lofty, bookish words including certain phrases based on metaphors and thus emotionally coloured: war hysteria, escalation of war, overwhelming majority, a storm of applause, post attack cleanup, global hunt for terrorists, a shot of power.

d) Newspaper clichйs, i.e., stereotyped expressions, commonplace phrases familiar to the reader, e.g., public opinion, free markets, long-term agreements, a melting pot, to cast a veto over, crucial/pressing problems, zero tolerance, political correctness, to go postal (extremely hostile). Clichйs more than anything else reflect the traditional manner of expression in newspaper writing. They are commonly looked upon as a defect of style. Some clichйs, especially those based on trite images, e.g., captains of industry, pillars of society, bulwark of civilization are pompous and hackneyed. But nevertheless, clichйs are indispensable in newspaper style: they prompt the necessary associations and prevent ambiguity and misunderstanding.

e) Abbreviations. News items, press reports and headlines are full of abbreviations of various kinds. Among them abbreviated terms - names of organizations, public and state bodies, political associations, industrial and other companies, various offices, etc. known by their initials are very common; e.g., EU (European Union), UNO (United Nations Organization), WTO (World Trade Organization), EEC ( European Economic Community), CNN (Cable News Network), BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), CEO (Chief Executive Officer), MBA (Master of Business Administration), DWI (Driving While Intoxicated), BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration). The widespread use of initials in newspaper language has been expanded to the names of persons constantly in the public eye, and one can find references to LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson), JFK (John Fitzgerald Kennedy). Sometimes the whole statements are referred to by their initials, e.g., WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get), FAQ (Frequently asked questions), BTW (By the way), 9/11 or 9-11 (September 11, 2001).

f) Neologisms. They are very common in newspaper vocabulary. The newspaper is very quick to react to any new development in the life of society, in science and technology. Hence, neologisms make their way into the language of the newspaper very easily and often even spring up on newspaper pages. Now, in the early 21st century, neologisms relating to computers and the Internet outnumber all others, for example, cybersickness (a feeling of illness caused by using a computer for long periods of time), keypal (someone with whom one regularly exchanges e-mail), online auction, access provider, MP3, PDA (Personal digital assistant), animatronics.

Finance has also launched numerous new words, such as dead cat bounce (a situation in which the price of shares rises a small amount after a large fall, sometimes before falling further), stealth tax (a tax that you pay on something that you buy rather than tax you pay directly to the government, and which you are less aware of paying than, for example, direct tax on your income). Sometimes finance and computers come together, as with dot-com (a person or a company whose business is done using the Internet),

e-cash (money that can be used to buy things on the Internet, but that does not exist in a physical form or belong to any particular country).

Many new words have come from medicine and biological science, e.g., biologically engineered, genetically modified; from the world of business: benchmark (to use a company's good performance as a standard by which to judge the performance of other companies of the same type), best practice (a description of the best way of performing a particular activity in business).

g) Foreign words. These have come from different languages. Some are traditionally used in newspaper writing, others have recently come from the areas of new technology (computers, Internet, business, entertainment and changes in society), for example, beaucoup (= a lot of money; from French); ad hoc (= specialized; from Latin); bona fide (= real, true and not intended to deceive somebody (from Latin): I wanted to prove my bona fides; curriculum vitae (CV) (= resume; from Latin); sine qua non (= something that you must have; from Latin); carte blanche (= complete freedom; from French); nouveau riche (= someone who has only recently become rich and spends a lot of money; from French); tкte-а-tкte (= a private conversation; from French); glitch (= a small fault in working of something; from German); macho (= a man who is always trying to show that he is strong, brave; from Spanish); schlock (= careless work / odd jobs, catchpenny job; from Yiddish).

The above-listed peculiarities of brief news items are vocabulary parameters used in an English newspaper. These vocabulary groups are also commonly found in headlines and newspaper articles. They are generally devoid of any emotional colouring. But some popular papers tend to introduce emotionally coloured elements into the matter-of-fact, linguistically neutral news items, e.g., In Ohio, O'Gara-Hess and Eisenhardt Armoring Co. says it is flush with new orders to crank out 300 “up-armoured” Humvees per month. (Newsweek, 2004);

Health Minister made his shock announcement in the Commons. (Time, 2003).

Important as vocabulary is, it is not so much the words and phrases used in brief news items that distinguish them from other forms of newspaper writing. The basic peculiarities of item news lie in their syntactic structure. As the reporter is obliged to be brief, he naturally tries to cram all his facts into the space allotted. This tendency predetermines the peculiar composition of brief items and the syntactical structure of the sentences. The size of brief items varies from one sentence to several short paragraphs. And generally, the shorter the news item, the more complex its syntactical structure.

The following grammatical peculiarities of brief news items are of paramount importance, and may be regarded as grammatical parameters of newspaper writing:

a) Complex sentences with a developed system of clauses, e.g.,

Although Mayfield denied any connection - he insisted his passport had expired last October and he hadn't been out of the country in years - he was detained as a “material witness” in a grand-jury investigation while the FBI tries to build its case (Newsweek, 2004). (6 clauses)

b) Verbal constructions (infinitive, gerundial, participial), e.g.,

Since 9/11 Donald Rumsfeld has insisted on personally signing off on the harsher methods used to squeeze suspected terrorists held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Newsweek, 2004).

c) Syntactical complexes, especially the Nominative with Infinitive (The Complex Subject). These constructions are largely used to avoid mentioning the source of information or to shun responsibility for the facts reported, e.g.,

Demands from Washington are likely to worsen Blair's relationship with serving generals. The White House wants more troops in Iraq - 2,000 is the rumoured figure - to replace the departing Spanish. If the Poles cut their forces, too, as they're hinting they may, Washington will likely urge British troops to take over command of the holy Shiite city of Najaf, home to rabble-rousing imam Moqtada ai-Sadr (Newsweek, 2004).

d) Attributive noun groups are another powerful means of effecting brevity in news items, e.g., classic cold-war-style telephone diplomacy; government anti -terror policies; a new patented smoking cessation program; an exclusive worldwide assistance network; the normally self-assured Pentagon chief; the national income and expenditure figures.

e) Specific word order. Newspaper tradition, coupled with the rigid rules of sentence structure in English, has greatly affected the word order of brief news items. The word order in one-sentence news paragraphs and in what are called leads (the initial sentences in longer news items) is more or less fixed. Journalistic practice has developed the “five-w-and-h-pattern rule” (who-what-why-how-where-when) and for a long time strictly adhered to it. In terms of grammar, this fixed sentence structure may be expressed in the following way: Subject - Predicate (object) - Adverbial modifier of reason (manner) - Adverbial modifier of place - Adverbial modifier of time, e.g.,

The US Consul-General, Mr. Maxwell McCullough, snooped incognito round the anti-Polaris art exhibition `Count Down” in the McLellan Galleries here this morning (Daily Worker, 1971).

A noticeably leaner Nestor Kirchner granted a rare interview last month to NEWSWEEK's Joseph Contreras in Buenos Aires after he was hospitalized for six days for treatment of stomach bleeding (Newsweek, 2004).

The “five-w-and-h” structure long claimed to be the only right pattern to use in news reports is nowadays often violated. And it is obvious that the newspaper has developed new sentence patterns not typical of other styles. This observation refers, firstly, to the position of the adverbial modifier of time. Now, statistics show that there are approximately as many cases in which the traditional word order is violated as those in which it is observed. Compare other patterns typical of brief news sentence structure;

President Pervez Musharraf says it was “destiny” that saved him from an assassination attempt on the rainy evening of Dec. 14, when several bombs destroyed a bridge just moments after his motorcade sped across (Time, 2004).

On November 5, “The Matrix Revolutions” premiered simultaneously in every major city in the world (The World of English, 2004).

On the day after Super Tuesday, a ghost of politics past materialized in Los Angeles: George W. Bush the Candidate (Time, 2004).

There are some other, though less marked, tendencies in news item writing of modifying well-established grammatical norms. Mention should be made of occasional disregard for the sequence of tenses rule and the rules for reporting speech. What is ordinarily looked upon as a gross violation of grammar rules in any other kind of writing is becoming increasingly common as a functional peculiarity of newspaper style.

So when he (Saddam Hussein) surrendered without a single shot from the pistol at his side, Arab diplomats and journalists say the once-admiring Arab masses were dismayed and embarrassed by his meekness (Time, 2004).

JOURNALESE: FORM AND CONTENT

Information and news provided for the public in the form of printed matter has traditionally acquired a number of essential forms shared by publicistic writing and newspaper writing. They are: the article, the editorial, the advertisement, and the headline.

The Article

Irrespective of the character of the magazine or newspaper and divergence of subject matter; whether it is political, literary, popular-scientific or satirical, all the features of publicistic style are to be found in any article.

The Editorial

Editorials, like some other types of newspaper articles, are an intermediate phenomenon bearing the stamp of both the newspaper style and the publicist style. The function of the editorial is to influence the reader by giving an interpretation of certain facts. Editorials comment on the political and other events of the day. Their purpose is to give the editor's opinion and interpretation of the news published and suggest to the reader that it is the correct one. Along political words and expressions, terms, cliches and abbreviations one can find colloquial words and expressions, slang, and professionalisms. The language of editorial articles is characterized by a combination of different strata of vocabulary, which enhances the emotional effect.

Advertisements and Announcements

The function of advertisements and announcements, like that of brief news, is to inform the reader. There are two basic types of advertisements and announcements in the modern English newspaper: classified and non-classified (separate).

In classified advertisements and announcements various kinds of information are arranged according to subject-matter into sections, each bearing an appropriate name. In most newspapers the reader never fails to find several hundred advertisements and announcements classified into groups, such as COURT CIRCULAR, TODAY`S BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, DEATHS, IN MEMORIAM, BUSINESS OFFERS, PERSONAL, etc. This classified arrangement has resulted in a number of stereotyped patterns regularly employed in newspaper advertising.

The Headline

The headline is the title given to a news item or a newspaper / magazine article. The main function of the headline is to inform the reader briefly of what the news that follows is about. Sometimes headlines contain elements of appraisal, i.e., they show the reporter's or the paper's attitude to the facts reported. English headlines are short and catching, they compact the gist of news stories into a few eye-snaring words. A skilfully turned out headline tells a story, or enough of it, to arouse or satisfy the reader`s curiosity; (George C. Bastian, 1956. Editing the Day`s News. N.Y.) In most of the English and American newspapers and magazines sensational headlines are quite common. The practice of headline writing is different with different editions. In many newspapers, there is, as a rule, one headline to a news item, whereas some others more often than not carry a news item or an article with two or three headlines.

RETURN TO THE CHARM OFFENSIVE (Time)

Has Chalabi given ‘sensitive` information on U.S. interests to Iran? He denies it, but the White House is wary.

A DOUBLE GAME (Newsweek)

DOES KERRY HAVE A BETTER IDEA?

MISTAKES WERE MADE GOING INTO IRAQ, HE SAYS. HE`D UNDO THEM (Time)

Such group headlines are almost a summary of the information contained in a news item or an article.

The basic language peculiarities of headlines, however, lie in their structure. Syntactically headlines are very short sentences or phrases of a variety of patterns:

a) Nominative sentences, e.g., The Prince of Arrogance (Newsweek), The End of Europe (The Guardian), A Bridge to Nowhere (The Times).

b) Phrases with verbals, e.g., Keeping U.S. Jobs at Home (Newsweek), Betting on the EU (The Times), Made in Japan (Time), To Get US Aid (The Observer).

c) Elliptical sentences, e.g., Off to the Sun (The Observer), Still in Danger (The Observer), Copycats, Soon Dogs (Newsweek).

d) Full declarative sentences, e.g., Europe`s Newest Members Face a Rough Road Ahead (Newsweek), The Future Starts Now (Time).

e) Interrogative sentences, e.g., Is He To Blame? (Newsweek), A U.S. Link to Madrid? (Time), Ready for Europe, or No? (Newsweek).

f) Sentences with articles omitted, e.g., Frogman finds Girl in River (Daily Worker), Staff Join Teach-in by Bristol Students (The Observer).

g) Complex sentences, e.g., The Country It Should Be (Newsweek), More Transparency Means Knowing How What`s Getting Where And When (Newsweek).

h) Headlines including direct speech, e.g., The Queen: “My Deep Distress” (The Guardian), Prince Richard Says: “I Was Not In Trouble” (The Guardian).

The headline in British and American newspapers and magazines is an important vehicle of both information and appraisal, and editors give it special attention, admitting that few read beyond the headline, or at best the lead. To lure the reader into going through the whole of the item or at least a greater part of it takes a lot of skill and ingenuity on the part of the headline writer.

Activities

MAJOR BLAIR KEEPS A STIFF UPPER LIP

Andrew Gimson, The Daily Guardian,

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

There is an uneasy look in Tony Blair`s eyes. Like so many things about our Prime Minister, it is hard to pin down, but when he allows his careworn charm to lapse, he looks disconcertingly vulnerable.

Viewed for an hour from a distance of a few yards at the press conference he gave yesterday, his eyes seemed sad and lonely, while also steely and aggressive. His manner was that of an officer who is far too intelligent to imagine that the war is going well, but who feels obliged to keep his end up and to “make the best of the situation”, as he remarked at one point.

This is not Dunkirk, but perhaps one of the early engagements before Dunkirk, when Major Blair`s sangfroid and his ability to cheer up even the bolshie men under his command with an amusing remark have been undermined by lack of sleep and by a debilitating sense of strategic confusion.

It is not that Major Blair has lost faith in the strategy himself, more that he is losing faith in other people`s ability to see through the fog of battle what an excellent strategy it is. The questions at the press conference were devoted almost exclusively to Iraq, and the Prime Minister`s answers often seemed directed more to the Iraqis than to the British people.