Strange BBC standards: Be obscene and offensive on air and that is fine. But comment in private on a coloured person's appearance and you are dead




The BBC has fired Carol Thatcher over her tennis golliwog 'joke' (though, unlike Jonathan Ross, it wasn't said on air). Background: The Ross segment was pre-approved by the BBC before broadcast and it took huge pressure on them before they took any action against him.

"Carol Thatcher has been axed from the BBC after she referred to a tennis player as a 'golliwog'. The daughter of Baroness Thatcher was dropped from her role as 'roving reporter' for The One Show on BBC1 yesterday. Corporation chiefs told her that unless she acknowledged that using the word golliwog was unacceptable, she could not work on the show again.

Those close to Miss Thatcher, who has worked on the One Show for three years, claimed she had 'bent over backwards' to say sorry for comments made in jest - and in private. But last night the BBC issued a statement confirming she had been dropped after she refused to admit that her comments had been 'completely unacceptable'. The corporation was accused of 'double-standards'.

Critics compared Miss Thatcher's rapid dismissal with the treatment of Jonathan Ross after he left obscene messages on the answerphone of Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs. The former prime minister's daughter, 55, who is believed to earn a few thousand year for her One Show role, was dealt with quickly and sternly. However Ross, 48, who earns 6 million pounds a year, was given a three-month suspension without pay and has since returned to work. In addition, the BBC took 11 days to suspend him.

Miss Thatcher used the word golliwog while in the green room with comedian Jo Brand and One Show presenter Adrian Chiles last Thursday. The green room is TV jargon for the lounge where guests and presenters relax before and after they go in front of the cameras. Chiles and Brand are understood to have been the only two others in the room. They are said to have challenged her about the comment which then filtered out to the rest of the production team.

The three were talking about the Australian Open tennis tournament, which ended in Melbourne at the weekend. Miss Thatcher is said to have referred to a black tennis player, understood to be Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [pic above], noted for his physical resemblance to Muhammed Ali, as a 'golliwog'

Source

Posted by John Ray.