X rated Today Programme - whatever next?

Anyone else catch James Naughtie's unfortunate slip of the tongue, involving the name of the Culture Minister (James Hunt) this morning? It had listeners spluttering into their cornflakes. apparently.

Warning: please don't listen to the clip if you are easily offended.

http://swns.com/naughtie-boy-radio-...remy-hunts-name-on-the-today-show-060852.html

 

Oh dear, oh dear! Poor James. He won't live that one down.:halp:

Chris

 

Actually, Naughtie has done the minister a huge favour. Who knew his name before today? Now, he's a star. :hehe:

 

Poor James.

In my nursing days I made the same mistake myself.
I was reporting on a patient who had been to theatre for a porto caval shunt when I transposed the letters.
I apologised profusely and said the same thing again.

 

:hehe::hehe: It's just so easy to do. Recently I had to say 'Clip Art Task' - easy enough, you'd think - but it came out as 'clip ar**d tart'. Once I'd said it, like you I became so aware of it that I kept making the same error.

I don't quite understand the people who were apparently ringing in and complaining about James' mistake. I think they need something better to be offended about. Surely they are bright enough to understand that there's a big difference between saying something deliberately and just getting your words in a twist? I would hate to do a live broadcast. I'm always amazed by how few errors there are on the Today Programme. Although, I did hear a nice story from the days when Redhead and Timpson were presenting. In the rush to get people in and out of the studio, they once mistook an eminent MP for a man who played tunes on his armpits. They didn't realise their mistake until they asked the MP to take his shirt off.

 

Jings, did people really phone in to complain about that :roll:
It was quite obviously a slip of the tongue.
But maybe they're all Freudians and believe that what he said was what he really thought :D
Who were you thinking about when you were talking about that Clip Art Task:D

 

Apparently Andrew Marr fell into the same trap on 'Start the Week', which follows the Today Programme.

Wits are calling it 'Radio Fourettes'. :D

Usually, Alice, the only thing I am thinking is 'please let me get to the end of this bit without making too many mistakes'. That's usually enough to ensure that the whole thing goes pear-shaped. How on earth people manage to do complicated live broadcasts is beyond me.

 

When I was interviewed live on radio solent about a medieval merchants house that we were working on, the bloke had got wind that we used cow dung in some of the lime plaster mixes.

He seemed to be goading me into using the S word on live radio. He didn't back off till I threatened to come round & plaster it all over his own place.

 

:hehe: I think what makes Naughtie's bloomer so funny is that he has such wonderfully precise Scots diction. Often when people mangle their words things become a little blurred. But here we have those oh-so-crisp consonants and the way he leans on the name for emphasis, just in case you were in danger of missing it ...