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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Aibu to want this presenter fired...

324 replies

Princess28 · 12/08/2015 20:07

I'm all for freedom of speech but I think as a radio presenter on BBC you do need to have some standards. He describes (from minutes 9-12) how breastfeeding is 'unnatural' and 'guys' don't want to see it in public. He describes a situation on a bus with a larger lady breastfeeding. He's not a rent a gob guest- he's the presenter. So aibu to want him off the airwaves?

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02y4dz4

OP posts:

Original poster

Princess28 · 12/08/2015 21:34

GarminGirl- I was trying to avoid using her name in my aibu! But, as you've mentioned her, I'm far less offended by her. Her 'job' is to wind people up. She is a guest on shows with usually someone the polar opposite to her and the presenter is someone who holds court. Can be very entertaining for some. But the presenter isn't supposed to be the one who is spouting all the bollocks!

OP posts:

catellington · 12/08/2015 21:42

I've signed the petition. Seriously this is not acceptable and this type of thing DOES have consequences for breastfeeding rates.

BiscuitMillionaire · 12/08/2015 21:57

I think it would be fine to spout nonsense like this if you were a guest on a show or a listener phoning in - free speech and all that. But as a BBC-employed presenter he should keep his offensive crap to himself. Jeremy Vine for example on Radio 2 hosts a show with lots of 'heated debates' (always makes me think of Mrs Merton), but is usually careful to remain neutral himself, except when playing devil's advocate and putting the opposing point of view to a speaker.

jenenberry · 12/08/2015 22:06

By calling for him to be fired and starting up petitions, is merely feeding into what he wants - He wants a massive reaction and he's getting it.
He wants to wind the members of MN up.
Don't give him the satisfaction.

Icimoi · 12/08/2015 22:09

Why do people never see that there's a difference between being entitled to an opinion and being entitled to be given a very public platform to express that opinion? The former is a genuine entitlement, the latter definitely isn't. Being given a public platform means that you do have at least some responsibility not to use it to whip up ill-feeling against women who choose to act entirely lawfully and responsibly in breastfeeding their babies. Having some plonker like this publicly proclaiming that breastfeeding is unnatural and nasty gives credibility to all the people who maintain that we should hide ourselves and our shameful activities away.

BiscuitMillionaire · 12/08/2015 22:15

jenenberry is probably right [sigh]

backwardpossom · 12/08/2015 22:18

A comment on his FB page: "YOU are the tit that needs to be censored." made me

CupboardOfLoveliness · 12/08/2015 22:18

Its not about hiding yourself, its about laughing at him and not giving it airspace surely. Its about not rising to the bait.

MrsKoala · 12/08/2015 22:20

I have worked in public facing roles in national galleries and universities and if i spouted cobblers like this while at work and to the public then i'm pretty sure (having also worked in the HR depts) that i would be out on my ear. There is a difference with him making these remarks on his own time and making them while being a representative of the bbc. Can you imagine Bill Turnbull saying this on bbc breakfast?

LokiBear · 12/08/2015 22:24

You can't sack someone for being utterly stupid. You can, however, use his incredible ignorance to highlight how absurd and downright ignorant you have to be to object to a baby being fed when it is hungry. Send him a link to this thread. To the presenter: Women have boobs in order to feed babies, you moron. That is the primary function of a pair of breasts. Your mother has breasts for the same reason. Stop being such a chauvinist and come into the light. It is warm and fuzzy, you'd like it.

haveabreakhaveakitkat · 12/08/2015 22:26

I love Alex Dyke.

Cliff Richard with the window open is the funniest thing ever.

CupboardOfLoveliness · 12/08/2015 22:38

Not sure Id actually call anyone stupid though... Views are sometime very wrong but call them stupid is thinking you are somehow better than them... lets just say education is the way to go. It really pisses me off that everyone has to bandy this "stupid" thing around

Flashbangandgone · 12/08/2015 23:26

Freedom of speech in private life is one thing... I'm amazed at those who think it extends to your job, especially when you are a presenter! As long as someone doesn't go so far as to incite hatred and violence, it is perfectly legal to express racist and homophobic views, and to insult those with disabilities... Does anyone really think a BBC presenter should get away with this in a broadcast under the guise of freedom of speech?!?

Icimoi · 12/08/2015 23:28

But, Cupboard, surely saying that breastfeeding is unnatural is the very epitome of stupidity?

Pneumometer · 13/08/2015 00:13

You know that joke about politics being show business for ugly people? Well, think how desperate you must be to be a grown man and the limit of your success is a day time show on BBC local radio? He's paid to say crass things in the hope that a desperate radio station with a reach you need a microscope to detect (which is also falling quarter on quarter) might get some attention. And here is is: attention.

One might observe the fall and fall of Jon Gaunt's career in this context.

Pneumometer · 13/08/2015 00:19

Out of interest, did anyone posting on this thread hear the programme as it went out?

No, I didn't think so. Radio Solent has a weekly reach of about a quarter of a million, so if at 10am on a weekday in the summer holidays there were more than 10 000 people listening I'd be amazed. Radio Solent? It's the broadcasting equivalent of two teenagers giggling on You Tube. The best remedy for wankers like this is to totally ignore them.

BecksTroll · 13/08/2015 00:38

You're fired!
Why?
Because you're a goady fucker with extremely bad hair

And oops upside your head is a baaadddddddd novelty dance, unless it's Pasha incorporating it into a Charleston.

JassyRadlett · 13/08/2015 00:48

Breasts all over the place isn't great either.

Agreed, I prefer them attached to the woman they belong to. Beyond that I struggle to give a fuck how much breast is showing as a mother breastfeeds Her child, recognising that some women have a tougher time of it than others, and babies don't tend to be all alike in their habits either.

Calling out stupidity for what it is is entirely sensible. And he made some massively stupid statements.

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 13/08/2015 01:04

I find it somewhat upsetting that you have been slated,
Although I have never breast fed and would never. Personal choice. Like everything in life I have my reasons. I fully support women that choose to and respect their decision and in return I expect them to respect my decision, anyway enough about how I feel, as much as I like to think it is. Not everything is about me.
He doesn't like seeing women breast feeding. Why what is the problem. It is a woman feeding her baby. It's one of the most natural things in the world. Oh and he'd best learn to get used to it as a women can legally breast feed where she likes. The law would side with her not him.
Not sure if he deserves to lose his job, but I am sure, that. He needs educating.

HeartsTrumpDiamonds · 13/08/2015 01:49

I want to have another baby just so I can breastfeed ALL OVER THE PLACE. Very publicly and very UNdiscreetly.

Restaurants, buses, swimming pools, parks, pubs, church, walking down the street, you name it. Answer the door with baby on the boob. OMG - how about at a football game? Ooooh, all those poor menz.

Hamiltoes · 13/08/2015 02:54

Nah sorry, everyone who said YWBU, were you all listening to the same show as me?

I'm not one who is constantly offended, far from it. But the guy practically likens women to animals throughout the show.

They should have signs around their neck? It should be treated the same way as sex in public? They should have to stay indoors and not venture out? Only "wags and yummy mummies" should be allowed to get their breasts out in public? Only women with facial hair breastfeed?

Thats gone further than just "offensive", to me that reeks of a hate crime. It sounds like he is actively trying to shame a whole group of people with protected characteristis to stay indoors.

And, at the risk of sounding like a "will somebody think of the children" numpty who wants everything cencored, do we really want someone who is stating these "facts" on daytime radio, perpetuating blatant discrimination?

I think he should be sacked. If i said something similar at my work, I'd be sacked. Sick of people thinking just because they're in the public eye they can get away with murder.

Hamiltoes · 13/08/2015 02:56

Oh and the part where he laughs at the man retelling the tale of "the big african woman" who got her "big melons" out. What a foul way to talk about another human being, I'm actually quite shocked this is allowed on daytime radio.

LavenderRain · 13/08/2015 06:47

I heard bits of it as I leave that radio station on for the cat
The man is a huge dick and is really quite horrible to some of the callers on the show.
I thought he was an old gimmer but was actually on a local tv show the other day and hes young enough to know better!
He obviously thinks hes the greatest presenter ever created.
my elderly mum listens to solent and said she would like to slap him round the chops

LavenderRain · 13/08/2015 06:51

Hes 53, I actually thought he was younger than that

Cat2014 · 13/08/2015 07:10

yanbu. What an idiot. hope he apologises

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