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Becasue the Daily hate Mail really has nothing better to report on. :yeees:
But they're idiots
The fact that Sachs' grandaughter is in a band like that has nothing to do with what happened. Ross is paid six million quid a year, which comes directly from the pockets of the public through the license fee. For him to think that entertainment at that cost is phoning up a 78 year old pensioner to say "he fucked your grandaughter" is abhorrent.
The BBC isn't like other stations and it has certain standards it MUST abide by in order to maintain the funding. Prank phone calls to a pensioner is pandering to the dregs of society and dumbing down an already substantially dumbed-down corporation.
well done. you got 'IRL trolled' by the daily mail.
Sorry to disappoint but I never read the Daily Mail.
Nice and er, timely?
Fuck. I meant that link to be in another post. Sowi!
p.s. I am a lil pissed ...
If it's so bad, why is the NOTW advertising "Hear it today!" on the front.
The tabloids really do have a strange agenda.
As far as the tabloids are concerned, I'd be more than happy to see this smug bastard brought down. I hope they keep giving him a hard time every stage of the way.
Perhaps because millions of people enjoy his programmes? He brings in viewers and listeners? It was totally blown out of proportion by the sort of people who read the Mail and Express. You can't cater everything to those who have the blandest tastes. He's just another target for these people who want to push their papers. May I remind you a whole two people complained when the incident first occured. 40,000 Mail and Express readers listened to the broadcast in order to get offended THEN they complained. The papers are going to be on him like an annoying neighbour that complains if you make the slightest bit of noise.
Dare I also say that broadcasting is different to office work, there are boundries to be pushed. You couldn't say 'By Gum' on the radio in 1948, things are a bit different now.
I somehow doubt Jonathan Ross would have taken it quietly if someone had done it to him. Piers Morgan once wrote a piece criticising Ross, so what happens? The cry-baby goes off to his lawyers to force Morgan to publish a retraction for one comment he made. Funny how he can't take the criticism he dishes out, isn't it? More instances of him going off to the sharks here. What boundaries are these? The right to leave verbal abuse on the answerphones of elderly men everywhere?
Andrew Sachs did complain, his granddaughter did complain, Brand offered a repulsive apology that was actually him bragging about what he had done. The effect of the newspapers is just part of what happened here, and it's pretty simplistic to proclaim that they were somehow in the wrong.
They rang up an old man to him that one of them had fucked his grand daughter. The argument that because people will laugh at them doing it makes it acceptable is a wierd one for me to understand. If you did it in private it wouldn't be alright, if you do it to make money then it's fine?
Personally I like living in a democracy. Yes in that system of government the press can affect the public mood, but the actions of the public do retain some sway with some restraints. I have heard nothing that brings into question that people were genuinely offended, and rightly so, by what happened.
You can't be glad that Jade Goody was challenged for her racism and then unhappy that Brand and Ross were challenged for their abusive behaviour, especially since the abuse took place as a reaction to Sachs deciding he didn't want to appear on the show after his grand-daughter warned him it might be a bit too much.
The big question for me that people seem to shy away from is - can comedy go too far? If you think no then you can feel free to ignore what happened - but if you think comedy can be offensive then you'd have to go some way to explain to me how this wasn't.
On a side note SG, you don't exactly help your argument with the 'Al-JaBeeba' thing. It reminds me a lot of the kind of insults that come from some pretty unpleasant ideologies and doesn't really do anything to help people understand where you are coming from.
Admittedly in this case it descended into crassness and bad taste, which is why they were disciplined. But it is certainly completely different from an office receptionist calling someone at random and abusing them- something which would be far more deserving of a dismissal.
In this case the call was scheduled to happen. It was from an entertainment radio show in which comedy, teasing and humour are a core feature. The hosts who were making the call got an answering machine instead of speaking to the person they were expecting to, and left a message which was tastless and potentially offensive to the receipient.
Not good, but certainly completely different to you or me making such call. Thus to say 'anyone else would have been fired' is not an appropriate comparison,
Funny how the darling of the Right, Jeremy Clarkson, gets away with far graver abuse every week without a whisper of protest from our fine moral guarding press.
How about that SG? Clarkson is clearly a hero of sorts to you, judging by past comments. Why aren't you demanding the man who regularly insults and offends millions of people get sacked at once?