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Carol Thatcher's 'golliwog' remarks
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/feb/03/bbc-drops-carol-thatcher
And now, of course, the right wing tabloids are speaking of 'conspiracies' and 'vendettas' because of her surname...
Maybe the tabloids feel hard done by that their favourite bogeyman, J. Ross, was "only" suspended for 3 monhts. But since they believe Ross should have been sacked, surely they must also agree that dropping Thatcher was also the right move? Or do they? :rolleyes:
And now, of course, the right wing tabloids are speaking of 'conspiracies' and 'vendettas' because of her surname...
Maybe the tabloids feel hard done by that their favourite bogeyman, J. Ross, was "only" suspended for 3 monhts. But since they believe Ross should have been sacked, surely they must also agree that dropping Thatcher was also the right move? Or do they? :rolleyes:
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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On the other hand it seems like relationships have totally broken down between her and other members of the team - in that case someone has to go and she's the obvious person.
But she was on her employer's property when she made the comment and surrounded by work colleagues, so it was a poor judgement on her part, especially with all the legislation in place to protect people against such language.
So maybe, yes, it's right she leave The One Show (but not the BBC) because Adrian Chiles was one of those her objected to her comment, and it is his show after all, which could lead to an uncomfortable working relationship.
But it's not the same as the Ross event whereby his comments were broadcast to all to hear, and deliberately so.
It should also be noted that Ross & Brand's comments were not of a racist nature, and that about 99.99% of all complaints the BBC received were from Daily Mail and S*n readers urged on by the rags, rather than by listeners genuinely offended by what they heard.
This is true and I didn't think Ross should have ever been threatened over the sack because of it. But likewise, Carol's comment weren't even recorded. It should never have been made into a story like this. But now that it's out, I think that it is right that she leaves The One Show.
I wonder who the grass was in this story? Pravda refuse to name the informant in question. I wonder why...
Why should it matter how it was leaked anyway? Have you got nothing to say about the remark itself?
Only because of who her Mom is
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7873624.stm
I can't see the mail complaining about Clarkson saying this either. He's "one of them" after all. When Clarkson has used 'Scottish' or 'Welsh' in the past he used it to belitte people from those countries.
I do find Clarkson funny on Top Gear, but he's become a parody of himself.
Of course he has, he means to.
So yes, there is a very good chance she's a racist, or at the very least fucking arrogant and unpleasant idiot who couldn't even bring herself to apologise. Good riddance.
But let the conspiraloon nutjobs speculate about 'leftist BBC' extracting revenge on Saint Maggie, if that's what floats their boat.
cf: Nigel Farage on Question Time.
If that's being right-wing I'm so glad I am...
'Fucking arrogant and unpleasant idiot' sounds about right, but I hadn't considered until now that Carol Thatcher may have been deliberately trying to needle Chiles and Brand with language she thought was near the knuckle but not quite actionable (the way trolls do on message boards), and got a nasty shock. As with trolls again, sometimes the offender has technically stayed within the rules, but a point comes when enough is enough. Thatcher may have just worn out her welcome after a long period of tension between her and the other programme makers.
And I suspect they did not so because of concerns for the girl or her grandfather.
The court is in session.
And? I imagine the people who complained did so because they don't think multi-millionaire's should get away with ripping to shreds innocents for a laugh.
Given that Thatcher's comment was in front of a dozen people and that Clarkson's is no worse than has been said about dozens of politicians, I would have said the deliberate humiliation of a young woman in public was much, much worse.
And let's not forget that Clarkson has, on more occasions than you could count without the aid of a calculator, insulted people of many trades, groups and nationalities. Repeatedly. In print and on TV. Yet nobody on the Right ever complains about it. Indeed the Scum, who loves Clarkson very much, actually devoted its front page to him on Saturday and gave him a platform to actually defend his comments.
As a man married to an American lady, I am sure you will agree that a man that has insulted all Americans repeatedly and called them fat and stupid on every other episode of Top Gear should have been suspended if not given the boot by the BBC about a hundred thousand times sooner than any action taken against Ross and Brand. Though you won't hear the likes of the Mail or the S*n complain about such blatant bigotry/racism when it comes from Clarkson's mouth.
As I said, the Right does look after its own...
Nope I wouldn't. I admit I enjoy pricking the sanctimony of people who complain not to be racist and then launch into an anti-American spiel and anyone who personally insults my wife had better have good running shoes. But if we got rid of every comedian who made jokes about Americans being fat and stupid we'd soon have only repeats of Charlie Chaplin
But again I find the personal humiliation of someone (bullying if you will) much worse than a comment in private. if Thatcher said it live on TV she should have gone and I have mixed feelings about whether she should go for saying it in private (probably yes, because relations have broken down), however none of this means that I think Ross and Brand were right or treated harshly.
The fact that they don't even have a single word condemnation to say shows them like the hypocrite scumbags they are.
Although I am inclined to agree there is a difference between anti-US comments and racism. Its the power relationship between the two, we are obviously less powerful than the US so the negative comments dont have as much power as racist comments have because they are directed at a less powerful minority.
As to this case, its somewhat difficult to judge because we dont know the context or the full extent of the comment. But her refusal to even say sorry for causing offence is the issue, she may not have meant any but her inability to understand that the term might cause offence speaks volumes.
Call it Xenophobia then...
ETA and the power relationship thing is bollocks if I may say so, because whilst it may be true on strategic level, it isn't true on an individual. Racism is racism and to try and dress it up as power dynamics is an excuse to allow people to perputate the view that 'they' are racist, 'I' am not.
Incidentally, you might find that the Right has had a far more illustrious and busy history of aligning themselves with terrorists and brutal dictators than the Left has- in the West at least.
I can see your point, I was more referring to the general comments about the US as a country rather than ones directed at an individual. But they certainly can be as hurtful.
Whether we will ever get over xenophobia is to be seen, we've been rude about the French for a good few hundred years and it doesnt show any signs of stopping. The 'fear of the other' instinct does seem to be quite ingrained in people, at one time it was probably a good survival mechanism.