I am a HUGE PBS and NPR fan - that magical combination does what the BBC is charged with in the UK. I am also an NBC fan - nothing like their shiny mix of news and celebrity toot while I sup my coffee and feed the cat in the morning. I fear, however, that CBS might have made me a little bit dumber. Having been bombarded with shouty, smiley presenters on the History channel dumbing down simple scientific and historical premises (Henry Rollins aside - I love his historical programs) I should have been a little more suspicious, but I live in hope of finding the US version of BBC Four or even Sky Arts (dayum, I am mourning the loss of Psychobitches). This weekend I stumbled across a program that looked like it might actually explore some interesting new technologies. I should have been a bit suspicious when they took 10 minutes to define some of the 'complex' terms that they would be using, including 'indelible' and 'plait'. FFS. By the end of the program I was fairly convinced that I'd lost a good few synaptic connections. Then the voiceover chap confirmed my suspicions - this particular segment of programing is both "Educational and Informational". Um, "informational"?
Reminds me of the call centre boss who once told the hubby that he wanted all the call centre operatives to come to work "energized and motivised". It was at that point that the hubby realized that he was exponentially smarter than his new boss and made a note to quit at the end of the day.
So, while I scoffed that the CBS voiceover man presumably meant "informative" I thought I'd better look it up. Knowing the great aluminium/aluminum debate I thought I'd better check.
Well, it turns out they're not as dumb as I thought. Despite my incredulity it turns out that "informational", unlike "burglarization", is an actual word. And, it turns out, a carefully chosen one in this particular instance. The subtle distinction between the two words is effectively that an "informational" program simply contains information, much like Lucky Charms contain crunchy little marshmallows, while an "informative" program actually suggests that the information imparted is actually useful. Well, that clears that up.
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