Opinionated News

Haven’t the BBC got anything else to worry about?  So some radio listeners got their panties in a twist over a prank made by two men of questionable humor who were employed by the BBC to entertain.  Well excuse me for thinking that if you employ people who have edgy comedic value that they’re going to provide it!  What on earth did the BBC expect?  If they wanted the Muppet Show they should have employed Kermit!

The two entertainers involved in this radio mess are Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, neither of whom are strangers to offending the public.  I’m not at all clear why the BBC thought either of them, let alone both of them together, were capable of running a radio show destined to please listeners of Radio 2.  Their alternate genre of comedy is best suited to the younger audience of Radio 1, than older senate middle-aged airwave king Radio 2 listeners! 

Having said that, I’ve read the transcript of the show and yes, there’s some adult content, it’s offensive to the girl in question, but really the BBC broadcast a lot worse in their normal scheduling on TV never mind radio.  Teens probably talk about worse in their conversations with friends than was said in these calls.  Problem is, this radio station isn’t targeted at teens, and the people it targets have probably little idea of what the younger generation talk about among themselves!

People complained, that’s their right.  The entertainers rightfully apologized.  The person who received the calls isn’t pressing charges.  The girl mentioned in the calls is out for blood, that’s understandable, (whether or not she did anything with Russell Brand is something she probably wants to keep to herself and not announce to the entire world)!  But somehow this has been blown out of proportion.  Brand has now resigned from the show over the matter, and the future of Jonathan Ross who has an expensive 3-year deal with the BBC is uncertain.  Why?  Instead of bowing to the people who complained - around 18,000 - the BBC should have ensured that future shows were more in line with the listening population of Radio 2, or moved it to a station more suitable for the demographic.  18,000 complaints is a lot, but if that’s a significant number of the listeners to Radio 2, I think the BBC has bigger problems with the station than this incident! 

We live in a society where we have certain rights, and one can rightly argue that the girl’s rights were violated, but I think the incident shows that the BBC is living in a bygone age where sex wasn’t part of the culture.   I understand that people want to live in the past, where things weren’t in your face, but that’s not the reality - you just have to watch any of the BBC drama shows, or one of their soap operas to realize that.  This was nothing more than going a step too far, and should have resulted in a slap on the hand rather than a full scale international media storm.  Perhaps it’s time the BBC get real and take a look at their news shows to see what important issues are being overlooked as this trivial in-house misdemeanor is given space in tabloids around the world.

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As a footnote I’ll say that I don’t find either of these two men funny as they don’t appeal to my sense of humor so my going in to bat for them isn’t about fan worship, it’s about way the BBC has acted over something so trivial in comparison with other things going on in the world.