Ah, the local press!

La Vanguardia is rewriting history again:

Hitler was responsible for Tossa de Mar’s tourist boom, at least that’s what the inhabitants of this town on the southern Costa Brava maintain. Although they were unaware of this, the first news of international tourism involves three Britons who arrived in 1915, fleeing World War I.

The full article–I can’t get in for some reason–may correct this impression, but it’s still the kind of thing that sends one into a brief but delirious whirl.

None of this fun in Catalonia Today, alas. Apart from the occasional dollop of political correctness–presumably with an eye to picking up government advertising or subsidies this autumn–it seems to have settled down under Stephen Burgen to the unremitting blandness of a 60s Home Counties parish mag. Thrills there are none, and spills come principally in the form of typos and the dodgy writing (or is it just translation?) of non-natives like Alex Leff:

Last April the government suspended any application for new helps [he’s thinking of ayudas] with housing.

If a newspaper can’t find a way to be provocative or disgraceful–which is what we all want–then it should at least aim to be competent.

(Update: thanks to Franco Alemán—now also blogging in English–for sending me the complete LaVa article. I’m sure that Francesc Solà knows that WWII was the Hitler war, but he could have done with a new para after the first sentence.)

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Comments

  1. “If a newspaper can’t find a way to be provocative or disgraceful–which is what we all want–then it should at least aim to be competent.”

    I missed this posting first time around. I’ve just sent an email to Catalonia Today questioning why they haven’t covered the Spacerocket/Chupa Chups story:

    ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨

    To the editors and journalists at Catalonia Today:

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this a *great local story* (a ‘David .v. Goliath’, if you ilke) you guys should have **already** picked up on?

    http://barcelona.blogs.com/barcablog/2004/09/spacerocket_aps.html

    http://oreneta.com/baldie/blog/archives/2004/09/svend_aage_bek_1.asp

    Or are you simply avoiding it – as you seem to have done with the El País/Twin Towers story (http://barcepundit-english.blogspot.com/2004/09/you-can-do-lot-in-one-single-day-just.html)?

    ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨

    Reply

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