When Danny Baker Tweeted a picture of a chimp dressed up like an aristocrat in reaction to the royal baby coverage, he was quite rightly criticised.
He later apologised and claimed that he was trying to lampoon inherited privilege, and hadn't even considered the racial connotations, but by then it was too late for him, he'd already been sacked by the BBC.
Having listened to Danny Baker's shows many times in the past I've never heard him say anything remotely racist (it's mainly irreverent nonsense) and given his long broadcasting history of never saying anything even remotely racist or bigoted, my opinion is that his apology should be taken in good faith.
The problem of course is that the BBC's decision to sack Baker betrays barefaced hypocrisy.
You only have to look back to Alan Sugar's brazenly racist Tweet about the Senegal football team last year to find a completely different approach from the BBC. Sugar was completely unapologetic about his racist Tweet, and the BBC somehow decided not to sack the star of their hit show The Apprentice.
Either the BBC's attitude to racism has developed extremely quickly from allowing unapologetic racists to get away with it last year, to sacking people for racist-looking Tweets now, or there's something else at play.
Maybe the BBC considers social media racism to be perfectly fine when it's aimed downwards, at nations like Senegal, and at African beach vendors, but when it's aimed at the royals, even inadvertently, it's an instant sacking offence.
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| This kind of Nazi-style racism is considered fine and dandy by the BBC. |
Despite Farage's long history of making racist comments about Romanians, using Nazi style propaganda to attack refugees, aligning with outright fascists in the European Parliament, whipping up anti-Muslim sentiments, and wilfully spreading the extreme-right white supremacist "great replacement" conspiracy theory, he's always welcome in BBC studios.
And then there was the time that they invited the extreme-right hate preacher Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) onto Newsnight for a softball interview on the very day one of his acolytes was jailed for a murderous terrorist rampage in Finsbury Park.
And then there was the time that the BBC invited leader of the Generation Identity hate group onto Newsnight on the very day one of their followers had carried out the mass killings in Christchurch, New Zealand.
And then on the day after Danny Baker's sacking, the BBC invited the right-wing polemicist Ben Shapiro onto their Daily Politics show, despite his history of anti-Muslim hatemongering, his racist comments about Arabs, his constant spreading of far-right conspiracy nonsense like Obama birtherism and the Nazi-derived cultural Marxism conspiracy theory, and the fact he inspired the extreme-right terrorist who carried out the Quebec City Mosque shooting (who obsessively viewed Shapiro's Twitter output).
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| If Danny Baker's Tweet was so offensive he had to be barred from the BBC, why isn't this? |
Of course the BBC's 'he's got loads of supporters' argument could have been used in favour of inviting Hitler onto the BBC in 1939, or the murderous Chilean dictator Pinochet in the 1980s, or Osama Bin Laden in the 2000s.
This facile 'he's popular so we have to give him a platform' argument also creates the impression that if Danny Baker had had a few hundred thousand more followers on social media, perhaps he wouldn't just have not been sacked, but he would have actually been invited onto flagship BBC politics shows to talk about his distasteful Tweet!
It seems that if you're an out-and-our racist or an extreme-right polemicist with a long history of spreading racist ideas and far-right conspiracies, the BBC are clamouring to invite you on their shows to help you to widen your profile, and if you're a star of one of their hit shows and you aim your despicable social media racism downwards and then outright refuse to apologise for it, that's perfectly fine too.
But woe betide you if the royal family are the subject of your ridiculously ill-considered Tweet.
I'm not trying to argue that Danny Baker is blameless, or that he didn't deserve criticism for what he Tweeted.
What I'm saying is that the BBC's hypocrisy is absolutely undeniable if they sack him over what he did despite his long broadcasting history on non-racism, and his apology, while they continue to wilfully platform unrepentant racists, and extreme-right polemicists like Alan Sugar, Nigel Farage, 'Tommy Robinson', Generation Identity, and Ben Shapiro.
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26 comments:
Thomas iterating his usual lies. The Christ Church shooter was a professed eco terrorist and openly sympathised with Mao's China. The only other person I've seen on television to do this is... the current shadow secretary.
Omfg, a mass shooter watches Ben Shapiro therefore Ben Shapiro inspired him to shoot people. Does anyone believe such inane, fear mongering twaddle? You're aware theres a mass shooter who was Bernie Bro right? Shit, I think Thomas has cracked it.
Bernie Sanders needs to be shut down before more people suffer!
Moron.
I count two morons, neither of them called Thomas.
I think I've cracked Thomas's racist meter.
-Labour: absolutely fine, nothing to see here despite what the party leader might say.
-Tories: Racist.
Brexit Party: Really Racist.
Ukip: They basically want you dead if you're not white.
-EDL: all of them are child molesters who want to kill, cook and eat you because of your skin colour.
BBC: Institutionilised Racists.
Trump: Hes only not nuked all the non whites, gays, transsexuals, transgenders and non Ford car manufacturing employees because his hands are too small lol hes orange.
I wrote both comment. Lol.
Hey Mr Anonymous. You're obviously well-educated and a man with his finger on his weakening pulse of right wing rhetoric. I especially liked your caricature of what a racist meter is. Such a fine mind but a pity that you choose to hide your brilliant intellectual mind in anonymity. I wouldn't say you were blinkered. I would say that you are blind and that even if the obvious came visiting your bedsit you would deny it all the way to your self-made cross to suffer for our liberal sins. Keep with the wrote comment lol.
*woke*
"dooby"
You like smoking... weed?
Also cheers for the compliments bud, means a lot.
Man, Trumps approval rating is 45+ even with the media that's biased against him. He'll probably win 2020.
God I hope not !!
Then you're twice the moron he thought you were.
Basically killed your entire blog in one post - well done dickhead.
Whoa! Whoa! You're saying the Christchurch shooter wasn't an eco terrorist and Mao sympathiser?? I hope you've got some solid evidence to back your claim there mate or you might just be blowing hot air.
Well given the hilarious failure of the Green New Deal, the strength of the U.S economy competitive to the last administration, not to mention the dems single handed inability to come up with a platform outside of "Orange Man Bad"...
Hope's all you've got.
It's been dying for some time tbh.
Anonymous displays his troll talents well. The Christchurch mosque shooter, Brenton Harrison Tarrant left a "manifesto" so we can try to understand his goals and philosophy. What results from this is a clear racism and fear of other peoples and an affinity towards White European culture.
He believes that "White Europeans" are under threat from other cultures, predominately Muslim and multiculturalism is the wrong path. Calling him an eco-terrorist who sympathises with Mao's China misses the point. He likes China because it isn't multicultural, not because of their purported communism. While the shooter could be described as an eco-terrorist, that makes little sense as he wishes to defend Western culture from other elements. While the West has at the same time being the best at harming the environment.
Tarrant ticks far more boxes of the right-wing, White supremacists than he does any other political label.
I never said he wasn't racist, merely pointed out he was a self professed eco fascist deliberately proclaiming his a toons would radicalise the left. It's all on his video. Similarly you're either lying or ignorant: he repeatedly claimed he admired maos China for its economy and iterated multiple tines the workers needed to rise up against their capitalist oppressors. Christ Mr Drunken, he actually stated he hated capitalism!!
You were just going to ignore that weren't you? Oh dear. I suppose you blame generation identity for this mess as well?
Have you been reading his manifesto? You might want to get a VPN if you have given it can land you in jail. Y'know, seeing as there was that teenager who downloaded copy and now hes facing 15 years behind bars.
Have you figured out you and everyone on this page is an authoritarian mouthpiece yet?
Oh fuck me, the west us best at harming the environment? Are you aware of the difference in plastic waste a d carbon emissions between the west and Africa, India and China? The fuck are you smoking you idiot.
Man, thank fuck we've got a bunch of broadly middle class socialists absolutely revving up for the state to censor everyone's speech. As if stating a mass shooter watched some yourube videos of a political pundit and THAT'S the reason they did it.
Dont worry guys, we can usher in a new era of peace and prosperity by getting big brother to ensure we dont watch the wrong thing. The Tories are completely trustworthy, look what they've done with the NHS! They will definitely have our best interest at heart. Heaven forfend they somehow figure out that calling you a racist gets your political viewpoint shut down as you flounder trying to defend yourself... oh, wait... That's already happened.
Honestly ask yourself: when has censorship ever benefited society? Weiner? The patriot act? Fuck the lot of you
Lol *Weimar.
Man, that Jess Philip's outright laughing at the suggestion mens rights should be discussed in parliament is a bit of work isnt she?
I agree almost entirely, the one thing I don't agree with is accepting Baker's apology "in good faith"
Baker isn't a newbie, not that it should let him off anyway were he new to this. He's been a presenter for decades, one of the most experienced presenters in the business. He's been sacked before, so he KNOWS he should be watching what he says!
Honestly, until recently I didn't know of the racist connotations between chimps etc and anyone who is of African heritage. It genuinely WOULDN'T have occurred to me either. But then where I live has seen next to no people coming in who have African heritage. If I lived in London and worked as a TV and Radio presenter for the past few decades I'd no doubt have been somewhat more knowledgeable.
So I have no sympathy for him, I also have no doubt this was deliberate...
You think Danny Baker was being deliberately racist despite no evidence that hes ever been racist before?
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