Pure diction

Sir,

Does DSJ have a dictionary? After perusing his Letter to Readers in last month’s MOTOR SPORT it rather struck me that a copy might do wonders to alleviate his apparent confusion. He could then ascertain that ‘media’ is an abbreviation of ‘mass media’, and is now taken to suggest ‘the means of communication that reach large numbers of people in a short time, such as television, newspapers, magazines and radio’. Nothing, I would have thought, to be ashamed of. It seems that DSJ is worried whether he belongs to the media, but he does so as assuredly as he belongs to the human race (sorry, should that be mankind?).

I don’t quite understand the point he is trying to make with regard to Ayrton Senna’s swearing at the Japanese Grand Prix. Surely it is irrelevant whether the media is also foulmouthed, so long as it doesn’t write or broadcast in similar vein. Then it would offend me.

Surely Ayrton Senna, a three-times World Champion, should have realised that he had an example to set when he spoke publicly in Japan? The real point is that I cannot imagine Honda and other Japanese companies being impressed by his descriptive comments.

Richard Cleary,

Wembley.