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Robert Peston is a man who rarely seems off the airwaves at the moment, from his Northern Rock news last year, through to his coverage of the financial meltdown we’re seeing today.

Whilst I can’t fault the substance of what he says, and it seems he’s got some substantial contacts, I’ve a few gripes with Mr Pestons presentation style (in particular his elocution), and his seeming self importance, matched solely by seeming self-belief. Most particularly his choice of language can be clumsy, and possibly even self-fulfilling. Watching his body language when being interviewed on television, particularly in the studio when he has to try and sit still for a little while whilst the presenter sets context, is always interesting.

But this exchange on Radio 4’s Today, this morning (at about 7:30 this morning) was delightful, and an example of something I’d suggest are real ‘Pestonisms’:

Evan Davis: Morning Robert, what do we know now [about the Treasury Statement]?

Robert Peston: Well, what we know Evan is that absolutely, well it confirms really, what I’ve been saying for 24 hours. Absolutely colossal sums going into RBS and HBOS. RBS raising £20b from taxpayers. HBOS £11.5b from taxpayers….

‘Pestonisms’ have been mentioned before, but I’d suggest that a true ‘Pestonism’ isn’t purely his spoken style, but also something that captures the raw essence that is Robert Peston.

Other examples gratefully received.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 10:36 am and is filed under Media, Radio, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.