I'm not a regular Radio 5 Live listener (surprise surprise!) but I have occasionally heard Danny Baker's show on a Saturday morning, simply because my OH's car radio is usually tuned to Radio 5 Live.
It was generally random, entertaining and often quite funny. Topics were never obvious but nonetheless interesting, in a bizarre way. Most of which was down to the presenters and their on-air relationship.
So it was particularly sad to hear this week that Danny Baker had been sacked for an inappropriate tweet following the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan's child.
In his most recent apology, he acknowledges that he's not a fan of privilege. He selected the first picture he found that reflected that, without thinking further about the possible connotations.
To be honest, the connotations wouldn't have occurred to me either. I don't think of Meghan as being 'black' (or whatever the PC term is these days). She's American, a former actress and married to Prince Harry. I don't really think about her beyond those points. I've had to check online just to discover she's the Duchess of Sussex. So I can't blame Danny Baker for not thinking of it, though as someone in the public eye with goodness knows how many people following him on Twitter, perhaps he should have been a little more circumspect before hitting 'post'.
I find it rather more disturbing that the image was one of the first he found when looking for privileged baby, or whatever search terms he used. I find it odd that the Daily Mail should be one of the first papers to see it as racist. I am disappointed that so many people think it's okay to demand he be fired when they more than likely haven't heard his radio show and aren't aware of his style of humour. I am also a bit disappointed that he tried to gloss over his mistake so casually, to be honest, but perhaps that was down to embarrassment.
Either way, a lesson to all of us, but particularly those in public employ, to think before we tweet. There are some strange people out there who will make sure we live to regret our mistakes.
Very fair comment on a sad situation. The only thing I'd add is that he added a more considered apology later, after realising (being made aware?) that the first one came across as pretty offhand.
ReplyDeleteLike Danny Baker, it doesn't occur to me to equate chimps with black people, and like you, I don't think of Meghan as black. But racists do, which seems to make the post racist. Naive of Danny, and desperately sad. I don't expect to be listening to 5 Live on Saturday mornings in the foreseeable future.