“Controversy”
I’ve not been closely following the Ross/Brand obscene phone call brouhaha, but a couple of things struck me about the BBC’s coverage :
Yesterday’s Today programme was talking about the “controversy” over the call. The word “controversy” implies disagreement, two sides, some who think one thing, some another. Yet in all the coverage I’ve not heard anyone defending what the BBC did, the debate, such as it is, being about the nature and degree of sanctions and who they should be applied to. The BBC must be shy about presenting the people who thought the call was a good idea.
The BBC mot du jour to describe the affair is “prank”, with its overtones of schoolboy larks. Russell Brand is 33. Jonathan Ross is 47.
Brand defended the call on air by asking what was more offensive, the Daily Mail’s support for Mosley’s Blackshirts seventy-odd years back, or his call. I guess the answer to that is that that no-one in the 1930s was forced on pain of imprisonment to buy the Daily Mail !
(Slightly off-topic but irresistible – I bet you didn’t know that the Guardian argued for the Nazi Party’s inclusion in the German government, saying that this would “help to perpetuate this democracy“. Or that the Observer hinted that claims of anti-semitism were exaggerated because “the major part of the German Republican Press is in Jewish hands“.)
UPDATE – No Good Boyo examines the entrails (h/t Sam Paradise in the comments).
I do have some unsolicited advice. The BBC handles these matters badly. The Queen, Gilligan, Barbara & Yasser 4 Eva, phones-in, boycotting Gary Numan, you name it – the BBC always follows the same pattern:
- Managers stoutly defend integrity of initial broadcast.
- Managers actually watch initial broadcast.
- Managers abjectly apologise for initial broadcast.
- Someone called Jonty is sacked.
- All BBC staff go on a “don’t lie or be a bastard/don’t say ffyc” course, run by an independent consultancy recently set up by Jonty.
UPDATE2 – the BBC find a defender of Ross and Brand :
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s World at One, comedian Alexander Armstrong defended them saying people “shouldn’t be too quick to condemn them” for comments made “in the heat of the moment” that were not intentional.
Wouldn’t be the Alexander Armstrong who makes frequent BBC appearances, would it ?
UPDATE3 – the BBC probably don’t need too many supporters like Guardian commenter mitch72 :
“Why has David Cameron piped up? To get more votes and critise the BBC which is supportive of the Labour Party.”
The Guardian “Should Ross and Brand be fired ?” poll is currently running a 70/30 yes/no ratio. (Visitors to the Guardian site can also check out the latest BBC job adverts.)
“Brand and Ross were providing precisely the kind of lowest common-denominator humour that advocates of the licence fee tell us would dominate the airwaves without public subsidy.”
Independent. I must say I hadn’t heard of George Lamb before, a presenter on one of the BBC’s 148 digital “youth” stations, nor his treatment of Ray Davies :
The routine was all about the public bullying of two people on the fringe of public life, one old and one young, neither as powerful as Brand or Ross. It was not a moment of zany individual madness either: the BBC played its part, not only passing the programme for broadcast but also, astonishingly, supplying Sachs’s mobile-phone number to their presenter to use on-air. When the row blew up, sections of the press, with habitual hypocrisy, trilled with outrage while adding to the hurt by sleazily investigating the private life of the granddaughter – in the public interest, of course.
Sachs’s mistake was his non-appearance at the studio. His alpha-male colleagues responded to this lack of respect with an act of petulant retaliation. The great songwriter Ray Davies was on the receiving end of a similar revenge-mobbing last month when interviewed over the telephone by a BBC disc-jockey, George Lamb. “Are you bald?” was one of the first of several idiotic, sneering questions asked. Diplomatically, Davies pretended that the line was bad and discontinued the interview. He was “a moody git”, the BBC man told his listeners, “senile, no sense of humour”; his bad energy would probably cause him to die a horrible death.
The 10,000 complaints are a “right-wing” campaign according to BBC insiders.
http://the-daily-pundit.blogspot.com/2008/10/bbc-insiders-blame-right-wing-campaign.html
There seems to have been a persistent whiff of the old ‘cutting edge – what do you expect?’ ploy in the BBC’s defensive posturing about this story.
There is, however, a clear problem with this line of thought. If each successive generation of comedians needs to be more offensive than the last, how long before all that’s left is eating someone, live in the studio and giggling as they scream?
BBC producers seem to believe that comedy can only exist if it makes the audience uncomfortable. Demonstrably, this is untrue.
Excellent comments earlier from Sue and It’s all too much!
It’s all too much, 8:40am
Very well said – I’ve been meaning to write something almost as eloquent for a while. The constant sneering of the Daily Mail by the Grauniad rent boy brigade does nothing for my stress levels either.
The only smells coming from the BBC are shit and fear. And well they should be.
BBC had a lot of comment about “breaking barriers” and how neccessary it is to do so.
Lets break the barrier of BBC funding.
“The BBC has received more than 10,000 complaints from irate viewers after Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand made offensive phone calls to Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs.
The sheer volume of complaints puts the BBC in a difficult position regarding the future of two of it’s most popular presenters.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1080839/Ross-Brands-jobs-threat-10-000-complain-prank-Ofcom-launch-formal-inquiry.html
Does it put the BBC in a difficult postion?
“The BBC has received more than 15,000 complaints about its decision to air the musical Jerry Springer – The Opera.”
“There have also been thousands of complaints to TV watchdog Ofcom but it cannot respond ahead of the broadcast.
But the BBC has vowed to press ahead with the uncut broadcast, filmed at the Cambridge Theatre, London. ”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4152433.stm
The BBC will wriggle out of it untouched – they are past caring what people really think – even now the BBC are revelling in their “contoversial” publicity, and any way its just old right ring Daily Mail readers who are complaining. We’ve been here before folks – remember the BBC and its “celebraties” do not live in our world.
“Brand defended the call on air by asking what was more offensive, the Daily Mail’s support for Mosley’s Blackshirts seventy-odd years back, or his call…”
..to a 78 year old Jewish man whose family fled from Nazi Germany. White supremacist taunts a Jew. Fucking hilarious isn’t it?
What is he…. 14 years old?
Mentally, yeah. But he’s trapped in the body of what appears to be a 33-year-old pre-op. tranny.
I am getting kind of piss*d off with the knee-jerk leftist taunt of “Daily Mail” reader…
It’s the same for Fox News. I don’t watch or read either, but when some lefty accuses me of reading the Daily Mail and watching Fox News as a way of dismissing my argument I tend to just remind them how popular they are. Fox is the most popular news outlet in the US, and the Daily Mail is the second-most popular (after The Sun) newspaper here. Then they’re either left with dismissing all of those people as mouth-breathing, knuckledragging simpletons or as victims of some sort of massive, yet invisible, conspiracy to brainwash them. Either way, you can then tell that person that they’re two screwdrivers short of a toolset, and that you’ll promise to stop being a ‘z0mg neocon sheeple!!1!LOL’ as soon as they agree to start taking their brain medicine.
“The cult musical, which is known for its bad language, sex and violence, will be broadcast in January.
Franny Moyle, head of BBC arts commissioning, said it was part of the BBC’s strategy to introduce a new generation of viewers to opera. ”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4023091.stm
No doubt Brand was snapped up by the BBC to introduce a new generation to comedy.
It doesn’t matter if every man, woman and child in the UK complains. The BBC doesn’t give a bucket of shit what people think. Democracy is a prosaic, borgeois concept to them. They’re the piss-stinking, Special Brew-swilling tramp who – out of the goodness of your heart – you decide to give some loose change to, only to have them spit at you and call you a fascist. Except of course, you can choose not to give the tramp your money.
Neither Brand or Ross will be fired, disciplined or fined. If there’s one thing the BBC despises more than America, Jews and Free Market Capitalism, it’s the opinions of us, their employers.
Bland and Dross are going nowhere. They are died-in-the-wool BBC elite. If Ross had eaten a baby live on air, they’d be closing ranks to protect him.
No. They will keep their jobs as a sacrificial lamb has it’s throat slit to keep the newspapers happy.
And that lamb won’t be any producer, programme controller or senior editor.
I bet some poor production assistant is shitting blue lights right now.
Mark my words if I am wrong.
Robert S. McNamara:
Snap! Your point being fair more descriptive and eloquently put.
I love the Alexander Armstrong quote “in the heat of the moment”. I guess he means just like British soldiers making a mistake in a firefight with the Taliban.
Yep, that is Brand and Ross, true British heroes.
“I can’t be bothered going on any further, but you get the idea
It’s all too much | 28.10.08 – 9:19 pm ”
Common Purpose.
i’ll say no more.
I love the quote from Andrew Sachs that he would be “horrified” if his grandaughter had slept with Russell Brand ! Nice one !
Armstrong, of course, as host of Have I Got News For You attempted to present a consensus that an Obama win would be the most desirable US election outcome, on last week’s edition…
According to ITV the Police have now had 2 formal complaints into the Ross/Brand scandal.
I’ve also put aonther complaint into the BBC over the scum reporting of the BBC where they interviewed some unwashed scum attending the “Never Mind the Buzzcocks” (another shite left wing BBC programme). I just wonder how many of those people actually pay the TV tax?
Why does the BBC seem to think what they said in some way makes up for what those two wankstains Ross and Brand did? There is clearly a breach of the BBC code AND possibly a breach of the law.
The BBC really is full of wankers.
Can we move on from this politically correct nonsense and move on the real issue. BBC bias. Much as I find it amusing to see the politically correct BBC being attacked by the politically correct lobby, it is getting rather tired. Surely there are more important issues to focus on? Brand and Ross are surely enjoying all the controversy…it just proves how ‘edgy’ they really are.
Quite. But first I want to know from Archduke what the puppet masters at Common Purpose have played in this sordid business.
Hugh,
“Check out the latest BBC job adverts”.
Why, do they have any vacancies for comedians ?
“If Ross had eaten a baby live on air, they’d be closing ranks to protect him.”
I doubt it BUT……. if Ross had eaten an aborted baby, then that’s different.
Ross has previous form for this kind of juvenile behaviour.
Anyone remember him trying to embarrass David Cameron in his appearance on Ross’s show?
He tried to infer that a young Cameron would have been “getting off” looking at pictures of Mrs. Thatcher
Mikewineliberal…Well then.What are your views on this matter?You seem to have been awfully quiet recently.C’mon Mike,let’s have your opinion on your workmates.
I think mike is probably confused, like most at the BBC. Most of them are so used to their politically correct world view that they don’t know what to do when the politically correct turn round and bite them on the arse. Bunch of fuck monkeys.
Sorry to have been quiet. I’ve been busy writing a script for Spooks. It’s going to be about MI5 using a TVLA van to crack an Islamacist cell.
Incident not to the credit of any of those involved. But Lordy it’s been blown out of all proportion.
But tell me, Archduke, what do Common Purpose have to do with this whole wretched business. You’ve made a couple of gnomic comments suggesting a link.
mikewineliberal | 28.10.08 – 11:29 pm
indeed. if you’ve read anything about Common Purpose – mockery and slander are a big part of it. this incident isnt isolated – its part of a bigger meme.
and THAT is why its such a big deal – i sense that the British public has had enough.
straw that breaks the camels back and all that.
in light of that , i beg to disagree with billybob above – even though his arguments are rational and measured.
BBC 2 are filming “the speaker” at speakers corner this saturday 1.30pm. This is your chance to heckle the BBC!
mikewineliberal | 29.10.08 – 12:07 am
research mate. do some googling. you’ll find it.
( i just say this , because this blog is about bbc bias.. and i dont want the conservation to veer into politics thats unrelated to the core reason of this blog… )
bbc droid on newsnight right now cant understand why its such a big deal..
its “like the danish cartoons”…
FUCK!! WHAT PLANET ARE THESE PEOPLE ON?
that ex channel 5 guy is good though.
he’s hitting the nail on the head..
“bbc arrogance”
mentions that Sachs refused to have it broadcast.. which the bbc ignored.
I’ve googled and found a couple of CP conspiracy sites. Truly terrifying.
mikewineliberal | 29.10.08 – 12:18 am
might be a load of toss.. but make up your own mind. i certainly have.
a thread on here could quite easily turn into conspiracy thread .. which would distract from what b-bbc is about.
but its just something to bear in mind. this incident didnt happen by accident… it was pre-recorded, and approved by BBC management.
think about that for a minute.
Hey Mike, check this out, and this is Aberdeen alone. You’ll notice how many police have been got at – and as for those in the oil industry, I know some of them so I’m confirming personally that what some of us think is happening is actually happening: PC as a political doctrine is penetrating the public sector and the upper echelons of corporatist Britain.
http://www.politic.co.uk/33783-post3.html
If you still don’t believe it, I’ll tell you who they are, what they do etc. Visit CP’s website, unless you’ve already got a set of course notes.
archduke: Why is it that the BBC thinks that people don’t have the right to complain if they didn’t hear the show first time around?
I pay for these wankstains and if I don’t like what they do I have a right to complain. If the BBC want to do this sort of shit then go commercial and setup a Comedy channel and let the inbred twats who think this shit is funny pay for it.
They showed a clip of Sachs on Fawlty Towers in the Kichen (when he sets fire to the place) I just started laughing. THAT’S COMEDY. That skinny little turd burglar in the studio is one of those ‘alternative comedians’ who is about as funny as boiling your testicles in acid.
And yet again we had the BBC ‘claiming’ that people’s reaction to the story was ‘mixed’. No what the BBC means is they trawled around the streets of London looking for some halfwit twats who thought it was funny.
And again the BBC failed to mention they may have broken the law and we haven’t heard the full tape and not only that, but Sachs refused permission for them to use it but still the fucking wankers at the BBC went ahead. Arrogant fucking twats.
And where are all the beeboid lovers tonight?
Ross and Brand = fag hag + pre op tranny –nuff said
Allan@Oslo | 29.10.08 – 12:28 am |
its noticeable how the EXACT SAME problems are happening in Ireland.
anytime i tune in to irish radio , its like listening to british radio…
the same things – prisons overcrowded, criminals being released, low sentences for crimes, cops being overegulated with paperwork, high incidents of crime by immigrants from eastern europe and africa, an army of P.C. types spending millions on said immigrants while pensioners scrimp and save, white flight from urban areas, schools in inner cities having to deal with 100 different languages and cries of “racism” if anyone complains… and on top of that the state broadcaster ignores the issues and pretends as if its all lovely and “diverse”
and thats a different country to britain.
sound familiar?
but Sachs refused permission for them to use it but still the fucking wankers at the BBC went ahead.
Martin | 29.10.08 – 12:28 am |
thats the killer… and it wasnt Woss or Brand that seeked permission – that was bbc management…
whats Woss’s number? lets all leave answerphone messages on it saying that we fucked his daughter.
and the culprits arent some teen MTV “jackass” types – i could understand that. youngster do pranks. and make mistakes.. thats ok.
but brand is 33, but Woss is FORTY SEVEN YEARS OLD…
unreal… bbc 1 is running Woss’s film review programme.
you would think that a BIT of tact would be nice.. like a postponement to next week maybe…
sky news – newspaper review… YUP , the woss/brand thing is top of the agenda.
oh boy. sky seem to be enjoying this.. cant blame them really.
the sun – “my grandfather is distraught… now sack those sickos”
headline tommorow.
ok. might be the sun throwing a few grand at “Voluptua” , but the sun has always been uncanny at reading the public’s opinion. that’s their job…
whats also interesting about this , is that how slowly it spread.
in the aftermath of the original broadcast there were only 2 complaints.
sounds like this story went viral and spread and spread – blogposts, audio clips, etc etc…
and now its reached a critical mass.
It’s the BBC’s first blogstorm – similar to Dan Rather’s, and it won’t be the last.
archduke: The BBC are going to get bumfucked over this big time.
I want to see a transcript of the whole thing. WE know the BBC cut out SOME of what was said, so what was cut and why was that cut but other stuff allowed?
The Police should be in there now though seizing the material before the BBC scum destroy it.
youtube video – short version..
david vance – you should embed this in the blog…
yer right with the dan rather comparision.
that was also a straw breaking the proverbial camel’s back.. it wasnt just about dan rather – it was more about the liberal bias that built up over time… until folks had enough of it.
similar thing here.
“..in the aftermath of the original broadcast there were only 2 complaints.”
Maybe there were only 2 listeners.
Martin
There is a transcript here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/3274807/Transcript-Russell-Brand-and-Jonathan-Ross-prank-call-to-Andrew-Sachs.html
sir christopher bland on sky news – he’s some bbc bigwig – is just moaning that the bbc should have “apologised” earlier…
oh right. so the bbc wasnt wrong in the first place – an apology should do because the plebs are complaining now.
arrogant fucker.
i have a lampost. anyone got some rope?
sky news – there is a possibility of a criminal investigation by the Met Police.
sidenote : i note that guido fawkes is slow off the mark on this story…
http://www.order-order.com/
david vance and other contributors – i would advise you to surf the tsunami of this one.. run with it…
embed those youtube videos.
“Timeline: Russell Brand prank calls”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7694989.stm
Its just like a soap opera for the BBC – “Timeline”?
You even get
“The players: Russell Brand, Jonathan Ross, Andrew Sachs and Georgina Baillie”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7694989.stm
Amazing!!