Being a pedant in news might be annoying - but important

When Manchester City 'scored' in the final minute of the recent Premier League game at Liverpool, there was much anger at it being ruled out after a video review. According to the laws of the game the right decision was made, but there are strong arguments to say the 'goal' should have stood. To some people it was following the letter of the laws too strictly. Being a pedant essentially.

When I worked at Sky News there was a certain colleague who'd send out almost daily emails pointing out 'mistakes' in the scripts. He was known as the building pedant. Often what he said WAS right but sometimes it felt like he was pushing that too far.

If someone says in a bulletin that 'a person has scaled London's Big Ben to stage a protest about.....' we know that unless they have clambered on to the bell itself, that this script is essentially wrong. Except that everyone knows what you mean. So does it matter?

Every month we talk about 'interest rates' being cut or raised or held, but it's just the Bank of England base rate being changed. Banks and lenders can follow if they want BUT 'interest rates' are not universally affected. Again though, most people know what we mean.

Does it matter if I think we should say Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day (two different occasions most years) and not say Remembrance Day, which does not officially exist? Most people would know what we mean - and perhaps even get confused by the less familiar Armistice Day?

Sometimes we follow terminology too strictly and it adds confusion. The old title for hospital doctors as 'junior doctors' was misleading to most people but we used the term in news without questioning it. Now it's 'resident doctors' and I am sure that confuses people just as much because it's new.

What I would say is that at the heart of news should be truth and fact - and if we say 'oh people know what we mean', that might lead to lazy journalism, which we see a lot of. I have written before about the numerous factual errors I see and hear when it's a topic I know a lot about. That makes me ask, how many errors are being made on the topics I am not an expert on? 

Getting it right does matter - because it breads trust. In the football, Manchester City would have gained an extra goal, which could decide the title. A player wouldn't be suspended for Liverpool, handing their next opponents a harder game, perhaps. So it made sense for the law to be followed properly, in my view.

In news, I think we should follow the same principles and sometimes know that we will get called a pedant!