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Original poster

To think Radio 5 host Danny Baker cannot stay at the BBC?

999 replies

KingHenrysCodpiece · 09/05/2019 08:41

Sorry if theres a post on this already.
Link www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7009283/BBC-Radio-5-Live-host-Danny-Baker-tweets-racist-Royal-Baby-monkey-image.html

He ought to go immediately.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
IAmNotAWitch · 10/05/2019 07:16

Oh the poor darling, everyone picking on him. When really he just didn't mean it that way.

If that is so instead of being racist dickhead is a complete fucking idiot. Has he been living in a barrel to not know that "Monkey" is regularly used as a racial slur?

I am glad he got fired. Job done, let him crawl back into his barrel and stay there.

It really isn't hard to not be racist.

Gilead · 10/05/2019 07:16

Why are you ddfending him weird? He tweeted a racist picture, his ‘apoloo’ was about him being the victim here and he sought to defend himself in the original twitter thread. If it walks like a duck...

ThatCurlyGirl · 10/05/2019 07:17

There’s a huge ‘royal baby racism’ story out there now when it didn’t need to be that or brought to the attention of the entire country.

If racism isn't called out, it's got a free pass to continue. Of course it should be called to attention and it should be made clear to the public that it's totally unacceptable.

It does need to be 'out there', to show minorities that they are being supported and protected and also to educate others about the subject.

I agree that it must be awful if MM and Prince Harry have had to see the media storm around this, but at the root that is the fault of Danny Baker not those who have reported on it.

Weirdwonders · 10/05/2019 07:17

IceRebel, I don’t know why people would want to choose to see intent over the alternative. If someone says that’s not what I meant to convey, why not accept it? Is there not enough genuine bad feeling out there?

IAmNotAWitch · 10/05/2019 07:18

Yeah gotta love the "if you think it is racist then you are the racist!" like some sort of gotcha.

No mate, just no.

Weirdwonders is right though, it isn't actually news is it? When a privileged white man throws out racism. Not news, just an every day occurrence that everyone is supposed to put up with.

SouthWestmom · 10/05/2019 07:21

Still finding it funny until...

To think Radio 5 host Danny Baker cannot stay at the BBC?
tinyme77 · 10/05/2019 07:22

I don't think that they should have sacked him. He didn't know that they have black genes. He apologised when he realised. A racist wouldn't have apologised. People love to get on the band wagon and love a good shaming.

noodlenosefraggle · 10/05/2019 07:22

He needed to first of all think before he tweets, and as a broadcaster of 40 years experience he should have known that, but after the fact, shut up instead of trying to justify it on a million TV and radio shows, making up clear lies about not knowing who had given birth/who the baby was, that the baby was mixed race etc etc. Just because he's made a tired and unfunny joke hundreds of times before and probably been indulged doesn't mean he shouldn't have thought it through this time given the context and just apologised and gone away when he realised. The justifying means he's not sorry, whatever he says and he's upset that the stupid outdated one joke he has apparently been dragging out for years has been called out.

JacquesHammer · 10/05/2019 07:25

It was misguided and misinterpreted - how prostate do you need to make yourself?

A genuine apology for a start? I mean, sounding like you mean you’re sorry for a “mistake” isn’t hard.

Let’s face it, he knew exactly what he was doing and it’s backfired and instead of actually owning his mistakes he’s suggesting everyone else is to blame or that he didn’t know who the baby was?

Tough shit. Make a mistake and not willing to apologise adequately, deserve everything you get.

User8888888 · 10/05/2019 07:25

‘I don’t know why people would want to choose to see intent over the alternative. If someone says that’s not what I meant to convey, why not accept it?’

Because

  1. he came up with that retrospectively to try and get out of trouble.

  2. he has had extensive media training and should know that an image like that will be interpreted as racist.

  3. he has shown no real remorse.

Even if his excuse was real and he was so naive that he didn’t realise the potential connotations then he has shown he isn’t fit to be a public broadcaster anyway.

HBStowe · 10/05/2019 07:27

what more can you do?

I don’t know, maybe take some responsibility? Acknowledge what you did? Don’t try and make out that you’re an entirely innocent party and that anyone who thinks otherwise must have a diseased mind?

Why did the media pick this up and make it bigger than it needed to be, and turn it into something more?

It’s literally the job of the media to report news, and a media personality making racist jokes about a royal baby is news. Racism doesn’t go away by everyone turning a blind eye and letting racists get away with it with no repercussions.

DeadWife · 10/05/2019 07:27

Anyone who disagrees with Weirdwonders is lacking in intellect then.

Wonderful.

Also, how can the apologists who talk of DB's intelligence equate his decision to post that, with any sort of IQ above 80.

OhFFSMary · 10/05/2019 07:30

I must admit when I saw the post I actually did this face Shock. Even if it was a post with no racial motives (and god knows tweeting is like opening your mouth and blurting something out so I will grudgingly admit he MAY - although I think it is highly unlikely - not have realised the implication of his post if he didn’t know about Meghan’s heritage), his apology should have been utterly grovelling and apologetic and it just wasn’t. Not at all. The BBC had no choice but to let him go.

Dongdingdong · 10/05/2019 07:31

This is disgraceful - I’m glad he’s been sacked.

noodlenosefraggle · 10/05/2019 07:32

He knew enough about her to know she was an American divorcee. To claim he'd missed tht she was mixed race is disingenuous. At best he is so pompous and pleased with himself that he thought his 'joke' was funny. But then he should have genuinely and immediately apologised and shut up about it.

GunpowderGelatine · 10/05/2019 07:33

I came on because I knew there'd be a MN thread Grin bravo to the BBC for sacking this piece of shit. Hope he never works again.

HBStowe · 10/05/2019 07:33

If someone says that’s not what I meant to convey, why not accept it

Because it’s an easy excuse for racists? Because it is absolutely not plausible that he didn’t know it was racist, or that Meghan is mixed race, and anyone willing to swallow this preposterous lie is just credulous beyond belief?

ThatCurlyGirl · 10/05/2019 07:36

@tinyme77

I don't think that they should have sacked him. He didn't know that they have black genes. He apologised when he realised. A racist wouldn't have apologised. People love to get on the band wagon and love a good shaming.

When you do something shameful, you should be ashamed and expect to be shamed.

His 'apologies' have included outright lies about not knowing who the new parents are, accusations that those calling him out have diseased minds, telling his bosses to fuck off.

I'm not on a bandwagon, I genuinely think it was a disgusting post and believe it's right there have been consequences.

I take no enjoyment from it, I don't "love a good shaming", I'm disgusted that in 2019 we still have to put up with this shit and I confront racism. You know, coz it's the right thing to do.

IAmNotAWitch · 10/05/2019 07:36

Every black or mixed race kid (or their parents) knew exactly what he meant to convey. Message received loud and clear. Just like it is when it is shouted in the street, or giggled in the playground.

Isn't this man a professional communicator? All that experience and still can't say what he means? We are supposed to buy that?

NoSauce · 10/05/2019 07:37

Weirdwonders another apologist I see? He didn’t appear mortified yesterday to me, his apology wasn’t one of mortification, quite the opposite actually. He seemed annoyed, fucked off. I have no idea why he did this, but I do not believe that he didn’t know it was Meghans baby that had just been born or that he didn’t think how upsetting and offensive the photo would be. He’s apparently an intelligent man ffs. From what I’ve seen I can’t say it’s apparent.

YouJustDoYou · 10/05/2019 07:40

Every black or mixed race kid (or their parents) knew exactly what he meant to convey. Message received loud and clear. Just like it is when it is shouted in the street, or giggled in the playground

This in fucking spades.

ThatCurlyGirl · 10/05/2019 07:46

Every black or mixed race kid (or their parents) knew exactly what he meant to convey. Message received loud and clear. Just like it is when it is shouted in the street, or giggled in the playground.

Absolutely 100% articulated perfectly @IAmNotAWitch

Aprillygirl · 10/05/2019 07:47

I think political correctness has gone a bit mad, and that there are many people who look out for and see racism/sexism etc when there is none there, but even I can agree that his tweet was disgusting and the connotations were more than clear. And his blaming bleating that the pompous BBC have thrown him under the bus and that the people who are appalled by the tweet have diseased minds just make this man even more of a nob. The vile little man deserves to be sacked and I don't want to see his nasty face on the telly or in the tabloids trying to defend the indefensible because he has literally fucked up royally this time and don't not deserve that voice.

YoureAllABunchOfBastards · 10/05/2019 07:53

Then frankly you're thick as mud. Anyone with half a brain knows that black people/mixed race people have been compared to monkeys from out and out racists.

Thanks for that. I did think I was an intelligent person but I stand corrected.

Of course I know that monkey chants etc have existed for years. However, as someone who is not a fucking racist, it didn't even occur to me to wonder about the baby's skin colour until my hairdresser said something about it as the pictures came up on TV. And because I am not a fucking racist, I don't make immediate associations between monkeys and black people.

Do I really think that he has been a closet racist for his whole life and chose this moment to let the mask slip? No. I think it was a stupid mistake for which he immediately apologised. Yes, the BBC had no option but it doesn't make me reassess my views of him.

But then, of course, I am a bit thick so maybe I know fuck all.

IceRebel · 10/05/2019 07:57

And because I am not a fucking racist, I don't make immediate associations between monkeys and black people.

So you're saying only a racist would immediately make that connection? Despite it being a well documented and reported issue for the last few decades.