[BITList] BBC - Andrew Neil's blog: Letter from America - Subtitles

[HUGH]

Mike,

I have little patience with people who complain they "can't understand" 
other people's accents, plainly spoken.   I have even less patience with 
media people who subtitle speech in case somebody doesn't understand it. 
With some, it is a point of honour to have a hearing problem.  Recently, 
I've listened to individuals on TV speaking perfectly understandable English 
(though it was not their native tongue), and yet, because some bloody idiot 
in TV deemed them incomprehensible (had to listen to them a wee bit 
carefully) I had to cope with bloody subtitles, some of them bearing small 
relation to what was being said.  I thought it insulting to the speakers. 
These people set up wholly arbitrary standards and judge others by them.  A 
pox on them.

Having said all this, I sometimes apply subtitles when watching some modern 
TV films and plays.  Not because of the accents - the poor acting is the 
problem.  They mumble, talk without moving their lips, and generally pay 
little attention to diction.  All in the interests of naturalism, no doubt, 
but it's a pain in the neck.  I used to hate the RADA accent - many British 
films of the 30s and 40s gave the impression that everyone in the UK had 
been brought up in the Home Counties - but at least they spoke plainly.

Hugh.