Is taking illegal drugs mandatory for top BBC Radio presenters? The reason that I ask is the news that BBC Radio One’s drum and bass DJ Raymond Bingham, AKA ”Grooverider”, has been handed a four year stretch in a Dubai jail for possession of cannabis. His BBC bosses said he had paid a “very high price” while his lawyers insisted he had simply forgotten he was carrying a tiny amount of the drug for personal use.
The conviction comes after BBC Radio 4 presenter Nigel Wrench spent time in the dock the other week answering a charge of drug fuelled homosexual rape. Wrench, who is HIV+ has previously used a Guardian interview to encourage gay men not to use condoms, was a presenter on the Beeb’s prestigious PM news programme. He was cleared of the rape charge but admitted cocaine snorting during what he called “boisterous horseplay.” (Animals were not involved on this occasion)
To have one presenter on drugs related charges is unfortunate; two might be a coincidence but a third will look like a corporate culture. Surely not?
There is an incredible lack of discipline and managerial control at the BBC and an “anything goes” culture – and the rot starts at the top:
*Mark Thompson defended the editor, whatshisname, over the falsifying of the documentary on the Queen. He would not fire him. Whatshisname resigned, eventually.
*BBC employees sit on Wikipedia, Facebook and this site (and no doubt plenty others) during working hours. A BBC employee commented here that he is on Facebook all the time at work and “nobody cares.”
*BBC hacks can spew out as much outrageous bias as they like at an unsuspecting public as long as they don’t make it quite as blatant as the infamous Barbara “weeping for Arafat” Plett or Humphrey “praising dead terrorists” Hawkesley, and as long as the targets of bias are America, Israel, Christianity, and so on.
*Mealy-mouthed “apologies” will be made and then quickly swept under the carpet; they wont appear on the BBC’s website.
So we can be forgiven if we perceive BBC people as a bunch of rebellious adolescents divorced from reality due to drug abuse.
I was a great toker – no regrets – and am anti-Beeb: economic and social liberal that I am.
Therefore my anti-Beebness isn’t part of a socially illiberal bundle. If Graham Norton makes a joke about buggery – so what, provided it does not harm? And I feel almost sorry for Grooverider (not least for his risible name).
Me: I’m interested in the tarnish coming off Dubai, as it reveals itself as a city built (in both senses) on sand…
Releases the drum and bass one!
Should of course be
RELEASE THE DRUM AND BASS 1!
I agree with point of order. I’ve had the unfortunate displeasure of being on a night out with the ‘yoof employees’ of the BBC and I have never met such a pack of spoiled, selfish, braying, coke abusing morons in my life.
Vance is right to point it out as a culture at the BBC, because it is JUST THAT. I’ll bet every Beeboid that posts up here has hoovered up a good few lines of Columbia’s finest in their working lives. The fact is, as we would come to expect from the BBC, they merely lie about it.
And as for the suggestion from twittering Alex that this has nothing to do with bias – do me a favour. I personally have nothing against drugs, or anyone that takes them, but employees of the BBC are not just anyone. They are funded by the public and should be held accountable to the public, just like politicans. We expect a higher standard from them, especially when they spend their entire day preaching to us religiously about all the evil excesses in the world and how we should all endeavour to live better lives via consumer abstinence.
They are ammoral hypocrites, who wish to force their mind-control totalitarian agenda onto the ‘idiot’ public while living a life of indulgence, moral and ethical freedom in broadcasting house.
I spit on them.
Two excellent items have come from this thread – firstly Andy’s linked article at 20.02.08 – 7:25 pm (it is almost satire: maybe it is) and then the suggestion for drug testing at the BBC.
Hey PFJ, I never said anything about having a bad time. And lighten up on the yoof. I’m in my 50’s. Most of the industry people I socialise with are late 30’s up.
Grooverider isnt really part of the BBC establishment – he’s one of the founders of the drum’n’bass scene – and has been djing since the very early of the rave scene.
i’d be surprised if he DIDNT smoke weed.
point of order:
“Hey PFJ, I never said anything about having a bad time. And lighten up on the yoof.”
I’m stating my own personal experience, not yours PFJ, so kindly don’t tell me to ‘lighten up’ on what I witnessed.
Sorry, I stated my initials not yours. POO is much better.
Incidentally, I was agreeing with your comment on BBC staff using drugs, which I’m certain you stated. My idea of good time isn’t hanging around a bunch of drugged up lefties. If you disagree that’s your choice, but don’t try and enforce your opinion onto me.
Judean Popular Front:
If you disagree that’s your choice, but don’t try and enforce your opinion onto me.
Enforce? The bastards!
What was it? Dawn raid with weapons cocked? Handcuffs? Cattle prods?
Share, Jude, share. If any of these Boibeeds have started enforcing their opinions, we must resist, and let the world know.
And you, of all people…
What was that beautifully-crafted, utterly humane phrase of yours?
Oh, yes:
They are ammoral hypocrites, who wish to force their mind-control totalitarian agenda onto the ‘idiot’ public while living a life of indulgence, moral and ethical freedom in broadcasting house.
I spit on them.
.
Can anyone hear a feint buzzing sound?