Here’s Richard Bacon introducing one of his guests this afternoon:
“Doug Stanhope is here. Just a remarkable stand-up comic. If you haven’t seen him and want a flavour of what he’s like go to YouTube now and type “Doug Stanhope Sarah Palin” [laughs] and get back to me.”
Bacon could have recommended any Stanhope routine, but it was the Palin one he wanted his listeners to hear. Here’s the meat of it:
Sarah Palin is the most fucking horrible, horrible [sic] – on so many levels…
Sarah Palin is this woman – she’s the mother of five, two of whom are retarded. One of them has Down’s Syndrome and the other volunteered for Iraq. She’s got a baby with Down’s Syndrome for Christ’s sake. How do you expect America to get behind her when even God hates her…
…after that last fucking retard baby came out of her – did you see the size of the head on that thing? The alien skull on that fucking retard baby had to tear her apart. Can you imagine the carnage, the violence of that thing coming out of her. It’s like someone stood at the foot of her cunt and yelled “Hey Kool Aid!” They [sic] bursting through her. That baby had to do more damage to her undercarriage than the Viet Cong did to McCain’s entire upper torso. I believe that if she were in the White House when she tried to deliver that child the secret service would’ve had to shoot it in the soft spot as it was crowning to save her… I think the Democratic Party is really dropping the ball if they don’t hammer the big cunt retard baby issues for the rest of this campaign and just stay on point. Don’t get distracted with all the other nonsense. Stay on point. Bring everything back to big cunt retard baby. They shoulda done that in the vice presidential debates and Biden dropped the ball. Everything shoulda come back to – whatever red herring she tries to throw at you – “Well I broke up the old boy network when I was the governor of Alaska” ” I heard the only thing you broke up was that sorry cunt of yours when you fucking threw that spastic out of your tard launcher, that’s what I heard.” And the moderator would’ve said “You have two minutes to rebut the big cunt retard baby allegations” and she’ll throw some other nonsense – “How’s your campaign equipped to deal with that proverbial 3am phone call?” And he goes “I don’t know but we’re not going to have some fucking waterhead running around kicking the phone of the hook so it goes straight to voicemail with his tongue on the button. I know that! What’s up with that?” And then the moderator would chastise the crowd to hold their applause to the end and remain seated. “What’s your record on earmarks?” “What’s your record on spitting out fucking bulb-headed [laughs] – I heard your fucking snatch is so split open they had to put a tent zipper on your snatch so your guts don’t shoot out when you sneeze. That’s what I heard.”
The routine ends with Stanhope saying: “Fuck you, go blog about it.” Thanks, I am doing.
This hateful shit is amusing to Bacon because it’s about Palin. The fact that he felt comfortable recommending it to his listeners speaks volumes about the groupthink that pervades the BBC/media luvvy world he inhabits.
This recent retweet by Newsnight’s Gavin Esler reveals the same mindset:
If anybody thinks the BBC’s coverage of the 2012 presidential election will be impartial I’ve got something they might like to buy.
(I read somewhere that Richard Bacon’s wife is pregnant. I hope she has a safe pregnancy, an easy birth and a healthy child.)
Good catch, DB. Which media organization is coarsening public discourse again? I forget.
Bacon gets good ratings, so this is good public service value for the license fee.
Stanhope is certainly not to everyone’s taste but he certainly doesn’t discriminate against any particular groups: anyone is a fair target for his humour.
Even without the Palin angle, I am sure the Downs Syndrome Association – and all disabled charities, for that matter – will be delighted that Bacon recommended this particular ‘vignette’ to its listeners.
Let the Down’s Syndrome Association know via info@downs-syndrome.org.uk using the subject line “Richard Bacon”.
Done.
Also done. Such hatred and cruelty cannot go unpunished. The BBC is an obscene organisation run by truly disturbed and disturbing people. As another commenter mentions, it is easy to see how this evil mentality enabled the torture and murder of millions upon millions in the Socialist “Utopias”.
I am a pretty crude man of the world, but never before have I actually fely physical pain and nausea induced by a collection of written words. Until now. Richard Bacon should be exposed for this, but he won’t be alas. The sub-humans who inhabit the BBC lost their morality and decency a long time ago.
Done also.
There are people out there who think this is funny, we all know what side of the fence they sit and the call us nutters! I am absolutely disgusted, if this was said about Obama or one of the Labour sisterhood twitter would explode. Why the hell is it alright to say disgusting things about Palin or Thatcher just because you disagree with them? I loathe Gordon Brown but really feel for him over the the problems he’s had with his kids, Cameron also. I wouldn’t dream of making such comments. How long before some “edgy” comedian singles out Cameron’s dead son for this sort of treatment? We know they are capable.
And doned again.
I completely agree with you, Paul Weston.
The “comedy” sketch referred to by Bacon is not simply a matter of political affiliation, its content is evil, let us not mince words about it. For a BBC presenter to laughingly, sniggeringly link to it and promote it, leaves us in no doubt at all as to the total absence of morality which holds sway within that corrupt organisation.
-And they have the gall to claim that the Murdoch empire is not a “fit and proper” broadcaster??!!? I would rather tune in to the broadcasts of plague-infested rats in the sewer, than to the BBC.
Let’s hope that plenty of the drug-addled twats listeners took up his invitation and now have a nice idea of the sort of classy being they’re tuning in to.
Maybe enough will complain to get mini-Prickstocke the gooner.
Bit pathetic when a bloke well into his thirties is still pulling the eternal adolescent, Whoa ! I’m so edgy stuff, but the breed seem to be over the Beeb like an STD rash of especially vile hue.
Well, unless you’re making money from it, then very few people over the age of thirty still hold left-wing views.
(Except for the peadophiles, bag-ladies and dirty old men that stink of piss, who like to hang around with spotty teenagers at UAF gatherings.)
Sorry i have a soft spot for some truly odd comedy even up to Boyles level but this ain’t funny !at all it’s just a very sick man abusing his own mind on a medium that means no one can get at him for what he says so he’s like many edgy ?? lol jesters he is also a coward!
If I hadn’t checked out the You Tube link for myself, I really couldn’t have believed anyone could be so vile. It didn’t take long before I heard the evil of it and could take no more. What planet are these people on? This is something beyond common or garden hatred, I just don’t understand.
Bacon’s taste in ‘humour’ goes some way towards explaining how Communism has murdered 100 million people.
I’m quite broad-minded but this is disgusting filth. Could anyone imagine a right-of-centre comedian having a go like that against a diabled child of a left-wing politician, let alone the personal attacks on Palin herself. But it shows the BBC mentality that one of their number can recommend such vile bilge and keep his job, and not even worry about being reprimanded for this. Bacon should be fried for this recommendation.
There isn’t a mis-type in the last line. 😉
no batter for your 2nd comment…oops, I mean better.
Richard Bacon probably THE biggest wanker on planet earth.
Wow! Truly sickening. How can the BBC endorse this?
The BBC love this sort of thing.
Richard Bacon replies:
@4d2b that recommendation was purely to give people a flavour of what he is like
Bullshit.
Bullshit indeed. Is there any way of proving he said “Doug Stanhope Sarah Palin”, if he specified that video. Also as you are on Twitter can you reply to fuckface Bacon that I am going to pummel his fucking face, I am back in the UK from September.
(for independent readers my opinion and threats have nothing whtasover to do with this blog or members of Biased BBC. )
Does this guy, savage obamaphiles?
I wonder if Bacon would be so keen,promoting
If it would be about fishsmell Obama, or maybe a scathing meat from the bone rant about black? muslim? Pres Obama him f–king everything up, at home/abroad to boot, his overt pandering in Cairo or hosting the shills at the OIC, in Washington to aid their nutjob blasphemy law.
i don t think he would somehow
mind you…Bacon, acts like a cross between Peter Pan & the scarecrow out of Wizard of Oz every day anyway, if anybody could
die from a delusion of self importance it ll be him
wa–er
No. These so-called comedians are always selective, despite claims made to the contrary.
In August 2008, Stanhope endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, citing his disappointment with the libertarian candidates and a desire to have “a strong, handsome black man in the White House“, as well as referring to himself as “the head of the one-man Libertarians For Obama group.”[19]
There’s a clue to one group that will not be subjected to vile abuse by this sicko.
goodness me…excellent MT
so the answer to my ” i wonder if” question…
that ll be a no then 🙂
on that blasphemy law…here it is
“OIC/Islamophobia: OIC Observatory warned since 2009 against the growth of the extreme right in Europe, Washington plans to host a meeting on resolution opposing defamation of religions,” from the International Islamic News Agency, August 1
Its all too reminiscent of the entitlement of the Left to treat certain people as sub-human and not deserving of any common decency. The last lot that did that were the Nazis with regard to Jews.
I recall how the BBC gloated as it posted up pictures of Berlusconi bleeding after being hit in the face by a thrown metal statue. Not empathy, just triumphalism. Bush ducking a thrown shoe, Murdoch’s foam pie – it’s all subconscious acts of hatred. Palin gets the same treatment.
Doug Stanhope is a ventriloquist’s dummy for the Left. Being a “comic” he is allowed to say out loud on air what they think but wouldn’t dare say. Cowards.
comedian…sheesh! the bar just got lowered
“I recall how the BBC gloated as it posted up pictures of Berlusconi bleeding after being hit in the face by a thrown metal statue.”
Maybe a carefully selected BBC Question Time audience ought to be given a chance to beat a Tory to death live on television?
The BBC and Bacon are really full of shite in the first degree.
DB
Thanks for posting. I wish I hadn’t read it. But the truth hurts. If I was his producer i would have given him the bollocking of a lifetime.
I have written to (“get back to me”) Richard Bacon and the Controller of radio 5.
I suggest we circulate this YOUTUBE clip and its BBC context to Rush, Glenn, Sean, Hewitt, Ingraham, uncle Tom Cobley and all. (Rush’s daily audience is larger than all the BBC domestic radio stations combined). Not in an attempt to get back at Bacon but to warn folks what is in store in 2012 from Britain’s “premier broadcaster”)
On a personal note, in trying to counter anti-Palin ranting I’ve lost several friends within the BBC (the latest being Jim Hawkins whom I contacted after his tweet blaming Palin for the Giffords shooting. You highlighted it some months ago). Rather than respond to me he has ceased communication.
But its more than anger I feel after watching the YOUTUBE clip. I am depressed. To think I once worked for an organisation that now aligns itself to such venom! (But then I find the same blind fury disguised as satire with Jeremy Hardy et al.)
And you’re quite correct: Bacon is now no longer viable as an honest anchor during the 2012 election – with or without Palin.
God that is awful.
Another thought: “The reason nobody at the BBC engages with you guys at Biased BBC is because you say nasty things in the comments blah blah blah.”
Well, at least none of us would recommend a skit about a Down’s Syndrome child being shot in the head at the point of birth.
Do we know if anyone from the bbc reads this blog? If so, do we know if it has any effect on their outlook on life? If it does, is it beneficial to normal people? Or do they see themselves as superior beings and the rest of us as ignorant peons?
BD, you’re right again. I have never heard anything like this rant against Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton or any other Liberal female. (By the way, where is the women’s movement defending Sarah Palin from such hateful attacks – except Camille Paglia)
I know, as a former employee of Auntie, how hard it is to please all the people all the time – something everyone in the BBC is aware of. For example, I was hated by one guy in Cambridge so much he wrote to my management every day complaining about me. But no-one would ever condone what this so-called comedian said.
Remember the BBC is not a monolithic body, rather (in the words of Stephen Hearst a former controller of Radio 3) “A gang of fueding warlords”. There are varying opions being voiced all the time in offices and corridors. Even some familiar B-BBC views are expressed. But this is not a blog for us to engage the BBC. Let them read our comments if they wnat and act (or not) upon them. They won’t acknowledge that they have even visite this site but don’t doubt it. They do. Producers, presenters, even executives (especially in “Corporate Affairs”) are drawn to adverse comments like moths to flames. You can bet your bottom dollar they visit here often and many secretly agree. Keep the comments coming and stay polite (except Martin, who is a hoot!!!)
I think the Bacon issue will be a subject of some disquiet within the network and future caution wil be urged. But, personally, I prefer to see people’s prejudices out in the open. That way “we the people” can judge the validity of the viewpoints expressed though we’ve shown we can deduce them pretty easily. (Nicki Campbell please note). And we all now know where Bacon stands, don’t we?
Finally It’s important to point out that when someone gets it right, they are applauded here.
Good stuff, Louis.
“By the way, where is the women’s movement defending Sarah Palin from such hateful attacks”
You mean like Rhian Roberts, Head of Development at BBC R5L? Somehow I don’t think she cares what people say about Down’s Syndrome children so long as the Palins are the target of abuse:
Doug Stanhope with @richardpbacon at the moment @bbc5live , enjoying the mental picture of an ‘over-fluffed audience’
According to a “friend” who works in TV, such opinions are brushed aside as coming from “right wing blogs on the Internet.” (cue rolling eyes). Same reality escape-clause as the CAGW denier – “funded by Big Oil” end of discussion.
Media-types carry a whole deck of these “get out of jail free” cards. I believe they come free every day with The Guardian .
Yes, just another one for the “The show’s audience loved it, and we received no complaints until the Wail made a fuss, etc.” file.
London Calling
Tell your “friend” to keep plugging away. I was once a Beeboid. In the end the argument gets through – with most people. Media types display bravado in public and with their friends…but there’s hope for them all.
(Now convince me what I just wrote is true. lol.)
The quoted narrative in this article is so utterly vile it turned my stomach.
Actually, bearing in mind that anyone can read this blog, I really think that DB ought to consider either removing the offending text and simply linking to the video, or at least placing it behind a “read more” link, with an appropriate warning attached.
I believe that the left reserve a particular bile toward the figures they most fear. I’m thinking of Palin and also of Margaret Thatcher.
I’ve never liked Richard Bacon and hopefully this latest misjudgement might sink him – although I doubt it.
It just goes to show the groupthink in the office and where Bacon assumes his listeners are at. How much longer can the BBC maintain it is unbiased? When will a Tory tackle this head on? What have they got to lose?
Last week he was telling Roy Greenslade he was criticising Piers Morgan over phone hacking because he’s jealous of his celebrity. He sounded like a spoilt, vile 10 year old in the playground trying to goad because he can get away with it because the headmaster his his dad’s best mate and everyone knows it.
What links that pathetic Stanhope and Bacon is cowardice. They feel secure in that nobody will call them out and deal with them as they deserve. Words are weapons and once in a while when misused as here invite the only civilised response despite deserving quite another.
Stanhope should never appear again on the BBC and Bacon should be dismissed.
On a personal note, I find that often, when I read some nasty thing that someone has said (in political debate, eg) I naturally get angry and want to hit back at them and make them look stupid in return.
But, there’s a sort of line, a certain depth of depravity, beneath which I simply cannot find it in myself to sink that low and ‘hate back’. This is an example of it. Reading his narrative made me vomit, but I simply cannot go where that ‘comedian’ has gone and voice the same sort of insults back at him. It’s too inhuman, I would lose something valuable within myself if I even considered it.
No, I can’t bring myself to hate that comedian, I can only feel pity for him and a genuine desire for him to seek help, as he must be in a desperately sad place.
Bacon is suddenly full of remorse on Twitter. There’s an MP involved and everything.
A completely fake remorse. He claims he doesn’t like the piece he asked people to look for. Yeah, right. Someone who says he’s a big fan of Stanhope, urges people to see his show, and he refers people to a skit of Stanhope’s on youtube because ‘he doesn’t like it’. Get a brain Bacon.
Sack Bacon.
He’s in crisis management mode on Twitter.
Just seen your tweets, well done.
Great job, DB. Bacon is clearly lying. Obviously one can laugh at a sick joke and still not actually endorse the sentiment behind it, but surely “MySpace paedophiles” is equally illustrative of his STYLE. Bacon picked it because he hates Palin. I bet he was so caught up in laughing at her that it didn’t even occur to him that some people might have taken offense to the bits about Down’s Syndrome. Remarkable, indeed.
“Bacon picked it because he hates Palin.” Exactly. Any other given reason is a lie.
DB, here’s the link to Richard Bacon confirming to the world what an abject piece of garbage he is:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012wgq4/Richard_Bacon_Chris_Tarrant_and_Edwina_Currie/
At 00:59:43 he urges listeners to check out Stanhope’s Palin piece. How lame. At other points Bacon says he’s a ‘huge fan’ and can’t recommend highly enough that people go and see him. Obviously when Bacon asked people to search Stanhope’s Palin piece he’s endorsing the ‘humour’. Please someone record it for posterity, my recording gizmo is up the spout.
00:57:12 [To Stanhope] “I’m genuinely a really big fan of what you do”.
00:59:43 “If you want a flavour of what he’s like go to youtube now and type doug stanhope sarah palin”
01:04:50 “A remarkable standup comic, one of my favourte (uninteligible)”
01:18:25 “i can’t recommend it enough, you go and see Doug Stanhope at Leicester Square Theatre”
Richard Bacon on Twitter viz the Doug Stanhope Sarah Palin clip he urged people to hear: “That wasn’t a recommendation, I actually dont like what he says in that clip”.
If anyone can find anywhere in his subsequent 20 minute interview with Stanhope where he asks him ‘Don’t you think your Sarah Palin piece went to far?’ ‘Do you regret it?’, please let me know.
Add liar to this wretched little turd’s list of qualities.
‘a flavour of what he is like’
While Doug Stanhope – whom I quite like – is often toe-curlingly offensive, his diatribe against Palin via her disabled child was well beyond the pale, even by his standards.
I see another Twitterer has suggested Richard Bacon rings Stanhope and calls him a ‘wank stain’ because of his Downs Syndrome rant – a sentiment with which he (Richard) agrees.
So why did Richard fete him as he did AND talk up this diatribe? To recommend this clip in particular is akin to telling them to Google ‘ivan cameron jokes’ or ‘porsche girl’. Brainless.
I think Five Live misjudged this one badly – that or they hadn’t actually heard the clip in its entirety. Or maybe their mindset dictated that, because the object of Stanhope’s vitriol was Sarah Palin, listeners would find it spiffingly hilarious. Everyone hates Palin and thinks she’s a joke, right?
Surely someone in the production team must have had reservations about mentioning it, given the nature of the subject matter? Couldn’t they envisage the possible fall-out?
Jeremy, you underestimate th pogromic hate of the Marxist Left.
Of course the real kicker against it all, as with so much of the BBC’s output, is that doesn’t even succeed on its own terms. Never mind the bias, where’s the funny? Stringing together a few naughty words and abusing a public figure doesn’t cut it.
a facebook page calling for his sacking might be in order
It’s a good idea, but to give this sicko more publicity on a major social networking site would do wonders for his career. Although he deserves to be outed it would backfire. No publicity is bad publicity for evil gits like him.
The audience thought it hilarious. Perhaps that’s just as frightening.
goodness…
how to go from “supposed” news channel to the sewer in 2minutes
Yeah – that 2008 Stanhope routine was pretty sick. But Richard Bacon’s BBC recommendation is not the first: In 2010 BBC4 gave Stanhope a regular slot in Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe.
eg.
Funny how an elected politician like Geert Wilders can get banned from the country for openly speaking the facts about Islam. But when a left-wing ‘comedian’ like Stanhope delivers a hateful 6 minute rant against handicapped babies – he is given his own slot in a regular BBC4 comedy show. Rest assured if the baby in question had been Obama’s, the BBC would have campaigned for Stanhope to be banned from the country – and would have dispatched a team of reporters to doorstep him on his sick views.
Where is the “BBC Trust” and its charter in all this, with its Englishwoman, Irishwoman, Welshman, Sotsman, Asian, and exTV hacks perfectly balanced accountable governing body? Asleep on the job? Dinnerpartying away somewhere? Tuscany? Where is Alison Hastings with her “oh so concerned” serious publicity photo face? Quango-queen.
On your watch BBC Trust, BBC-paid staff are shovelling bigotted leftie abuse in our faces, while the bBC TRust are waiting for an intern to filter out the noise of the baying public outside their windows.
Congratulations to everyone who is turning up the heat on Richard Bacon. Email adrian.vanklaveren@bbc.co.uk (5Live controller) AND david.jordan@bbc.co.uk (Head of Editorial Policy) to complain.
He cannot get away with this type of stuff all the time.
sadly he can and he will. He is drug taking leftwing hypocrite. He is the personification of everythihg which is so grotesque and vile about the BBC and the left in the UK. The left are quick as Usain Bolt to go looking for racism where ther is none, to bang on about climate change and the religion of peace. They are oh-so politcally corect, but vicous when it comes to the right, to Palin and to the handicapped. In my youth I spent time on the popbitch board which now daily has horrific abuse of handicapped people/kill Thatcher rants etc. It is entirley accepted in those lefty circles.
done
I have just sent an email, I got a return error message on the vanklaveren address and a message that Jordan is out until the 8 Aug. Nice and convenient.
Yeah I got that too
That a £4Bpa 24/7, 365/365 supposed ‘news’ corporation essentially goes off for the school hols is bad enough, but when the complaint trail is specifically designed to mislead, ending up at a dead end (Helen Boaden’s email of oblivion) is beyond parody.
I recently wrote to my MP. He notes my concerns on various issues in, sadly, ‘national treasure’ terms, but reassures me ‘the government is not convinced that the Trust is the best model of governance structure.‘
He’s always reminded of Alan Partridge – his little catch phrases – the desparation. In the style of the NI coverage .. I have spoken to a prominant menber of the royal household who said ” Richard Bacon is a low life twat . Amongst his achievements he can note drug taking whilst on a flagship children’s TV show, getting fired from the Sunday People for making up film reviews and now tops this by openly admitting he likes to laugh at handicapped people – yes! thats sounds like a good definition of a twat”.. Officially the Royal Household declined to comment.
David Jordan will be a complete waste of time, but I’ll try the Controller out, and copy in various MPs.
He must have some photo’s of someone high up doing naughty things.How else would he keep his job?
“He must have some photo’s of someone high up doing naughty things.How else would he keep his job?”
Nah, depraved hatred excites the Left, especially if it is the Right which is the target.
I noticed on this blog post from the end of 2008, Ofcom had words (quite far down – search for Stanhope) with the BBC over Stanhope calling Palin’s baby “retarded” on BBC 6 in September of that year.
The Palin episode was cruel, obscene, foulmouthed, repulsive, insensitive, ignorant and clumsy.
Richard Bacon made a big mistake in recommending that particular episode – the stupidist, least insightful, unfunniest, episode of the lot. It was obviously chosen because Bacon was confident that everyone shares the BBC’s mindless reflexive hatred of Palin, and it shows that the ‘singular qualities’ of Stanhope’s observational musings are above Bacon’s head.
Nothing is sacred with Doug Stanhope. That’s his virtue. If Bacon had recommended this instead it would have been a different story.
Incidentally,
“Ofcom concludes that this programme was in breach of Rule 2.3 of the Code.”
“Breach of Rule 2.3”
Does this ruling have any significance? If so, I wonder if Bacon was ‘breeching a code’ by recommending it.
What was the subject? It just sounded like noise. I couldn’t discern what the target was – probably because it was so tedious to listen to while waiting for him to get to the point, that my mind wandered off and missed the point, if he ever got to it.
As if by coincidence the Telegraph have this article today on this very subject.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/comedy/8682010/When-comedy-was-funny-there-was-no-need-for-profanity.html
Hmm ok BBC sockpuppets who cruise this blog why ?
Boyle [love him or hate him ] was gone off the BBC for a joke about a fully grown athlete that could kick him where it hurts and she did , Carol Thatcher got kicked for using the word ‘Gollywog’ in a private room and then grassed up by the Brand thing ! this guy gets talked up and his show get free publicity?why?
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the BBC sock-puppets to appear
Bacon on Palin:-
http://biasedbbc.tv/2009/11/richard-bacon-update.html
http://biasedbbc.tv/2009/11/richard-bacontwitter-bbc.html
http://biasedbbc.tv/2010/02/bias-that-keeps-on-coming.html
http://biasedbbc.tv/2010/11/palinobama-double-standards.html
Ah. Thanks for the links, hippiepooter.
Sarah Palin? Self-serving? Well, I never! Perish the thought that a politician – or a media celeb for that matter – could be self-serving. Blow me down with a feather!
Given Richard’s previous comments on Twitter, one might be forgiven for seeing ‘Stanhopegate’ in a different context.
He really isn’t a fan of Sarah Palin, is he?
DB: Result!
I got a reply from the Down’s Syndrome Association. They are encouraging all their members to speak out, and want to direct their complaints not to Stanhope but specifically to Bacon. This following is being sent out to all members:
Statement and Action –
The Down’s Syndrome Association is shocked that a BBC employee has publicised the work of a comedian which is nothing more than a vile offensive rant and conflicts with BBC guidelines which state a responsibility to ‘protect the vulnerable and avoid unjustifiable offence’. During Richard Bacon’s BBC 5 show yesterday afternoon he directed listeners to a video of Doug Stanhope discussing the son of Sarah Palin on YouTube. The child was born with Down’s syndrome and Mr Stanhope’s comments about him were abhorrent.
As a public body the BBC should not be promoting the work of such an individual. Therefore the Down’s Syndrome Association has logged an official complaint with the BBC. We encourage everyone to do to the same using the link below –
Link goes to BBC complaints page.
Bacon brought this on himself. His Palin Derangement Syndrome caused him to highlight this bit without thinking about the part about Trig. It simply didn’t occur to him, so caught up was he in laughing hysterically at someone making fun of Sarah Palin. I bet he completely overlooked the inappropriate remarks about a disabled child.
I’m sure he feels bad about that part now, but it serves him right for being a partisan hack with that Beeboid sense of unaccountability. These BBC personalities all feel invincible in this way, and are given this freedom by station management. Russell Brand had carte blance because that silly woman at Radio 2 loved him. The inevitable result of letting “edgy” people with a specific agenda do whatever they like is always going to be controversial. The BBC knows they can get away with it in the end.
At most, some poor junior producer will get fired over this. Otherwise it’s wrist slapped, lesson learned, online course taken (OMG, a whole twenty minutes of his life he’ll never get back!), line drawn under, no real consequences to the man responsible. Hell, they’ll probably make him a hero for standing up to the evil right-wing nutters who only want to destroy the BBC.
Nice one DP, but I think you’re being over-indulgent with Bacon. How could he not have fully digested the contents of the piece and lapped it up because he hates Sarah Palin. I mean, in his world, everyone hates Sarah Palin, and those who dont dont count.
Or do they Mr Bacon?
I think you’re giving Bacon too much intellectual credit, hippie. He was laughing at the Down’s Syndrome insults because the disabled child was guilty by his association with Palin. In his mind, any jokes about Trig were actually projected jokes about Palin. So, to him, funny. No further digestion needed. Bacon’s brain was clouded by PDS.
Here’s a relevant blog post from one of Richard Bacon’s other comedian buddies, Mark Watson, about his Mock The Week colleague Frankie Boyle making sick jokes about Down’s Syndrome. It’s actually rather thoughtful, in its way:
I noticed yesterday that Frankie Boyle, my sort-of-colleague from Mock The Week, has been criticised by the Mail, and some other people who shouldn’t matter but do, for doing some nasty comedy about Down’s Syndrome sufferers. Someone in the front row had a daughter with Down’s, and understandably got upset. Frankie apparently remarked that it was his last tour, and he didn’t give a fuck what people thought. All in all, quite unpleasant.
The standard response from a stand-up like me, especially when confronted by right-wing agitators like the Mail, is to come down on the side of Frankie and all of us, talk about our right to free speech, defend comedy as an unrestricted artform, etc. Yes, it’s a shame if someone gets upset in a comedy show, but what exactly do you expect if you go and see a show called I Would Happily Punch Every One Of You In The Face? Who the hell goes to see Frankie Boyle thinking ‘I do hope he doesn’t say anything controversial, here’?
However.
Although these are all valid reactions, they don’t entirely address the issue of whether, in the 21st century, a rich, successful and physically healthy man should be able to make tons of money by taking the piss out of Down’s Syndrome, and pass it off as entertainment. Even though I’m part of a comedy industry which will argue, till it’s blue in the face, that you can say whatever you like, I’m not convinced that it represents progress if we’re allowed to say things like that.
Pretty much since I became a comedian, I’ve wondered whether comedy awards itself too much licence by playing the hey-calm-down-we’re-just-joking-here card, and thus making anyone who objects feel like… well, like a Daily Mail reader. My little-read second novel A Light-Hearted Look At Murder was sort of about this. In my time in comedy clubs I’ve seen scores and scores of gags at the expense of fat people, gay people, disabled people, women, pretty much every minority group other than 45-year-old, slightly paunchy stand-ups in suit jackets. A lot of them are just jokes, and everyone (including the victims) finds them funny, and it’s cool. Or, the victims aren’t there, so it’s sort of cool. But all these jokes do contribute to keeping certain stereotypes nailed in place.
I could care less about what comedians do in comedy clubs. I’m also in favor of a healthy, non-prudish tolerance of comedy in all forms. After all, I posted a clip here of Sam Kinison making some very un-PC jokes about starvation in Africa. Is that any less offensive? I think so, but I wouldn’t have directed my audience’s attention to it. If I were a BBC host wanting to give the audience a sample of what Kinison’s humor is like, I’d have directed them to one of his bits about marriage and divorce. I sure wouldn’t have chosen, for example, his bit about Rock Hudson’s death from AIDS.
Yes, the final para from that quotation shows that he gets it. Most don’t.
And that encapsulates the problem with the Beeboid Corporation.
Bacon wouldn’t have directed his audience to gags about starving Africans either.
The fruits of the union of Richard Bacon and Polly Toynbee have been captured here on YouTube. Three minutes in the Labour Ward (where else?!) . Its amazing how the twins immediately have their parents looks – and you can tell which is whose…
listen to richard facon interviewing michael parkinson. the way in which parkinson treated him as a tiresome prat and told him how russell brand was not funny but just a twat is priceless. bacon is sputterring at the end ot it