Russell Brand, a BBC presenter, phoned Andrew Sachs, to brag about his alleged sexual exploits with Mr. Sachs granddaughter. Jonathan Ross, a BBC presenter, famous for being famous, goaded him on. Now Mr. Brand has been forced to resign and Mr. Ross has been suspended. This happened because two people complained to the BBC about comments made in their show, other complaints followed later.
Whatever one thinks of Brand and Ross, and I must say I don’t think either of them fulfils the BBC’s remit to provide quality programming, this episode reveals the warped priorities of the BBC. We all paid for their ill judged comedy routine because if you receive TV broadcasts, you are required to pay the BBC licence fee. However, no one died, the statements were not racist and they did not encourage violence.
There are numerous other examples of far worse views being suported, at our expense, by the BBC. At the same time as Brand and Ross made their offensive call the BBC comment sections on Israel include numerous comments, allowed by BBC monitors, which are profoundly racist and excuse and in some cases encourage aggression against Israel. A recent example can be found in the Antisemitism Discourse in Britain 2007 Report by the Community Security Trust.
This example is a comment that was posted on BBC Radio Five Live on 10 July 2007. Despite protests by Jewish Community groups it was not permanently removed. It reads:
“Zionism is a racist ideology where jews are given supremacy over all other races and faiths. This is found in the Talmud. There is a law called Baba Mezia which allows jews to lie as long as its to non-jews. Many pro jewish supporters will cringe at this being exposed because they know it exists, yet they keep quiet about it, hey frip, jla and co (sic) The Law of Baba Mezia!! Tsk tsk tsk! Its in the Talmud.”
This quote draws on the work “The Talmud Unmasked”, a 19th century anti Semitic text distributed by far right groups in the 1990’s. This quote accuses the Jewish people of the following:
- That Zionism, the Jewish national project, is racist
- That Zionism is racist because Jewish law instructs it to be so
- That Jewish law tells Jews to believe themselves superior to all other people
- That Jewish law instructs Jews to lie to non Jews as necessary
- That many “pro jewish (sic) supporters” know of this Jewish law and conspire to conceal it from public view
The BBC refused to remove this anti Semitic comment because:
“The Radio Five Live message board is a forum of debate and people can express their views, some of which others will strongly disagree with. The complaint was brought to the attention of our moderators who looked into the issue and concluded that the post was not one that merited removal from the site as it was not felt to have breached the message board rules. A guide to the house rules is found on the Five Live message board. Posts that are removed include ones that are considered likely to disrupt, provoke attack or offend others or are considered racist, homophobic, sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable.”
This reveals an interesting paradox. The BBC will not remove blatantly anti-Semitic comments from its message boards on free speech grounds. However, claiming to have had sex with a woman from a group which entitles itself ‘the Satanic Sluts’ is a sackable offence. The BBC needs to review its priorities. This does not mean that Mr Brand should not have been forced to resign. It means that, until it rightly ceases to enjoy taxpayer subsidy, the BBC needs to take a range of offensive behaviour far more seriously.
