[News] POLL TIME - Danny Baker’s tweet

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Danny Baker is definitely not a racist but he is a cheeky monkey.

He should have realised the pc brigade would take offence. Personally I don't see the issue. Anyone who associates monkeys with black people is a racist in my eyes. I certainly wouldn't have looked at that picture and seen it from that angle and I am pretty sure he didn't either.

That said, I also don't think he was too bothered about being fired from the BBC.

I am one of the pc brigade and I'm not offended.

This is a campaign of condemnation for those who wish to be seen as virtuous and popular. Nothing to do with pc.

 

[dangull]

I will never know how the black dog in the film Dam busters managed to cope living with the racist British army.

 

[lawros left foot]

A couple of thoughts on this, DB is very vocal on his radio show, about the numerous perceived failings of the upper echelons of the BBC, their PC agenda, the presentation of various radio formats, and the slavish adherence to the Premier League business model. His opposition to the forthcoming VAR experiment is particularly vociferous.
On Twitter, he is scathing about the current government as well.

I can see a scenario, where the upper management at the Beeb have been waiting for an excuse to rid themselves of, what could be seen as, an embarrassing problem. Unfortunately, they gave Baker enough rope, and he made a noose.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

I voted yes. The man is a prat and counts Chris Evans as a mate......................say no more !
Having said that, he's only tweeted what a lot of us were thinking ?

I'm really hoping I'm being whooshed here.

 

[worthingseagull123]

People are far too easily offended these days.

 

[lawros left foot]

I will never know how the black dog in the film Dam busters managed to cope living with the racist British army.

He more than likely lived with the RAF, as the Army didn’t fly Lancaster bombers.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Because as with most media types and twitter addicts, they believe they are broadcasting to their fans and people who know them and get where they are coming from.

Because I like him and listen to his show occassionally, I got it.

A little jibe at the preposterousness of the way the royal baby leaving a hospital is often reported, juxtaposed with an old time ridiculous photo of a chimp in posh clothes.

I didn't think for a second it was a comment on ethnicity.
However if Jim davidson had tweeted it, I probably would have thought it was.

From what I hear, Baker has accepted that because other people have mistaken it for a racist comment, he has to go.
So everyone is happy, apart from the people who were lined up for the sausage sandwich game.

He admits it was a terrible mistake. Just listening to the LBC interview.

My life will be that little bit poorer for not having the first 30 minutes of his R5 programme on a Sunday morning.

As someone who also has his own tropes, not only on here ('oh goody, another poll' etc) but also in real life (work and family - I won't bore you, they have to suffer it so I'll spare you the agony) I'd be mightily pissed off if employers who should (and yes, do) know my schtik, and that I am a force for the good (which DB certainly is) choose to throw me under the bus just so they can accrue a small tiding of approval from the most very ignorant and lazy minded of the hoi polloi. Most of whom hate DB anyway, largely because they don't approve of a working class man with wit, money, fast friends and a grounded family.

Yes, I'm quite ****ed off about this.

 

[The Clamp]

Is it usual for such a rapid sacking? I would have thought a suspension while some meaningless investigation followed by an apology and return to work would have been a better way to handle it.

 

[Sorrel]

This is the first time on one of these offence things that I really couldn't get what the problem was until I saw it explained. At that point it's "oh yeah, I guess some people could think that".

We have one set of people - like DB - who like funny images and little jokes. We have another set of people who've been primed (rightly or wrongly) to see offence in any potential image/words. This second set would *obviously* see the image as a problem. DB was thinking twitter was like talking to his mates, but in fact he's shouting to everyone, including those looking for problems.

The end result is not a surprise. We all have to choose our words with care; especially if lots of people are looking at them.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

The sheer number of people trying to psychoanalyse a bloke who tweets stupid pictures when drunk all the time both amuses and saddens me at the same time. Every time Suarez scores a goal, he tweets a picture of Bernie Winters. Other times he tweets a picture of Dustin Hoffman jumping when a team score. That is his thing - he often fires off tweets for the sake of it and often to continue his trope.

This was an accident waiting to happen with his ego and liking for pushing the envelope. The scatter gun tweeting has eventually resulted in this. Was it right he was sacked? Maybe. Is he a racist? No idea but seems unlikely. Was that tweet intended to be racist? Absolutely not. Whilst I get what he was trying to say when he retracted it last night, he really didn't help himself.

Talking of not helping himself, by summarily dismissing him without investigation on the same day as having the odious toad on QT for the 33rd time opens the BBC up to claims of hypocrisy. Along with Alan Sugar still having a series after a similar event last year.

This.

**** me. In my game, if we had to guarantee we were right every time we came up with an idea, there would be no medicines. Fact.

The man is a bringer of joy. If you don't dare to do then you'll never do, and if you fear to fail you'll forever never do.

I just made that up. Pretty good eh?

But I do talk a lot of bollocks too. We all do.

The trick is being able to spot the self serving **** from the hearty fellow. Hearty fellows often accidentally offend.

Anyway, enough of this. I have dinner to eat and football to watch. English football. In European competition.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'm really hoping I'm being whooshed here.

Nope.

Poster demonstrates that lazy ignorance expressed anonymously on a football site does NOT lead to sacking in the morning.

More's the pity.

 

[DumLum]

It was easier back in the day when to avoid being a racist you treated everybody the same and rightly so.
Now the woke have arrived you have to notice a person's race and treat them differently.
It's difficult to keep up, anybody using the term mixed race is now frowned upon. The term is now of Dual Race? The aggressiveness of the woke doesn't help and I think we are going backwards personally.

 

[wolfie]

He’s got himself into a hole and just kept digging. Saying he doesn’t know who had the baby just makes him look even more stupid.


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[lawros left foot]

I made a similar faux pas a couple of years ago having a meal out. A young black family were on an opposite table with a young girl, three years old ish.We were chatting with her parents and I started smiling and pulling faces at her, and she was responding, poking her tongue out , etc. As we left, we said goodbye to her Mum and Dad, and I quite innocently called her a cheeky monkey.
It was only later that I realised the offence that I could have caused quite unintentionally.

 

[Deadly Danson]

I made a similar faux pas a couple of years ago having a meal out. A young black family were on an opposite table with a young girl, three years old ish.We were chatting with her parents and I started smiling and pulling faces at her, and she was responding, poking her tongue out , etc. As we left, we said goodbye to her Mum and Dad, and I quite innocently called her a cheeky monkey.
It was only later that I realised the offence that I could have caused quite unintentionally.

Exactly and that's why intent is so important here. More amazingly 18 people have used their critical faculties to state DB knew that what he was sending was racist and did it anyway. We are all entitled to a difference of opinion but I find that extraordinary.

 

[The Optimist]

The Duchess of Sussex is mixed race, and her mother is black. IF the monkey thing is relating to that, as football fans used to when they used to throw bananas at black players, then it is just out and out plain stupid and horrible.

And I don't think Danny Baker is that stupid - just unthinking maybe, and I am sure he will be regretting it

Sorry I didn’t make myself very clear. If we accept that Danny Baker didn’t mean anything racist then what is the joke?

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Sorry I didn’t make myself very clear. If we accept that Danny Baker didn’t mean anything racist then what is the joke?

I think the point ( not joke ) of the tweet was that royal babies are treated like circus animals.

Still, we now have his head on a spike so bad luck, Danny.

 

[WilburySeagull]

Absolutely, totally this. I can't stand it - let's reserve our condemnation for real racism with intent which is abominable rather than a misinterpreted gag. Baker's final apology around the time of the final whistle last night was sincere and should be the end of it but he has just tweeted that he has opened the door to the Daily Mail asking "Do you think black people look like monkeys?". What the hell is wrong with us - how on earth did this happen?

Is it usual for such a rapid sacking? I would have thought a suspension while some meaningless investigation followed by an apology and return to work would have been a better way to handle it.

I suuspect that he is a self employed contractor nit an employee in which case suspension etc are not relevant. He may well have a clause in his contract allowing BBC to end it in these circumstances.

 

[Chicken Run]

It really made me laugh when he first tweeted it. Didn't even cross my mind that he was being racist. It's a monkey in a suit with a walking stick - it's funny.

Now apparently because I laughed, according to the furious masses, I am part of the problem.

No you’re not part of the problem, he is!

 

[symyjym]

Because as with most media types and twitter addicts, they believe they are broadcasting to their fans and people who know them and get where they are coming from.

Because I like him and listen to his show occassionally, I got it.

A little jibe at the preposterousness of the way the royal baby leaving a hospital is often reported, juxtaposed with an old time ridiculous photo of a chimp in posh clothes.

I didn't think for a second it was a comment on ethnicity.
However if Jim davidson had tweeted it, I probably would have thought it was.

From what I hear, Baker has accepted that because other people have mistaken it for a racist comment, he has to go.
So everyone is happy, apart from the people who were lined up for the sausage sandwich game.

Not sure what is preposterous about how royal babies are reported when leaving hospital. I didn't even know she had given birth until I saw that he has been sacked on a news feed and normally it's the anti Royalists who give things like this the most attention. Are you saying that this was a joke in protest of the Royal establishment and had a more sophisticated message behind it? I know nothing about this sausage sandwich game so I don't feel this loss.