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Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

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Leothebear
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Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220407

Postby Leothebear » May 9th, 2019, 12:44 pm

I can't imagine what he was thinking or more likely not thinking, when he posted.
How the hell did he think it'd be interpreted?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48212693

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220413

Postby UncleEbenezer » May 9th, 2019, 12:57 pm

Did he tweet to a BBC account? That would look like a disciplinary matter.

But it seems horribly totalitarian to dismiss someone for things done outside of work!

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220415

Postby Howyoudoin » May 9th, 2019, 1:05 pm

I honestly don't think he meant it the way that it's been interpreted i.e. the new Royal Baby is a monkey because it is black or part black.

I think he was making a jibe about the circus of the Royal Family, especially when a new baby is due.

I don't think you should be immune from disciplinary action just because you do something outside work rather than in it but in this case, I think he should've been given the benefit of the doubt.

HYD

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220420

Postby bungeejumper » May 9th, 2019, 1:14 pm

Agree with Leo, he probably didn't have his brain in gear when he posted. People take comic potshots at the royal family all the time - HIGNFY has been known to gag about how Prince Charles wouldn't be averse to a little bit of matricide - but Baker was out of luck. Presumably because the mixed-race thing was at the front of other people's minds. Can't say I've ever given a passing thought to Meghan's parentage, personally.

I dropped a clanger of my own in my teaching days, when I asked one uncharacteristically stroppy pupil why he'd been in such a black mood all morning? Then I sort of curled up and starting whimpering inside. Whoops, he was 100% Nigerian. We'd been trained not to notice race, and there I was not noticing it. :( Whoops again.

BJ

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220423

Postby scotia » May 9th, 2019, 1:19 pm

I'm far from being a royalist, but I'm afraid his tweet was totally unacceptable, and I can't see any media organisation wishing to hold onto the perpetrator - whether or not he was simply brainless.
PS - if it had been my baby he had targeted, I would have felt similarly.

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220425

Postby GoSeigen » May 9th, 2019, 1:24 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:Did he tweet to a BBC account? That would look like a disciplinary matter.

But it seems horribly totalitarian to dismiss someone for things done outside of work!


Typical. We have an environment where it is seen as de rigueur to view entire sections of human population as little more than monkeys for no better reason than how they look, and you are worried about some idiot's job????


GS

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220426

Postby Archtronics » May 9th, 2019, 1:26 pm

Seems fair enough to me,

Posting publically online is similar to giving a public speech/presentation in my view, if you can't engage your brain and think about what your saying and who your saying it to, you shouldn't be using it.

I really don't understand minor celebrities who use social media like a personal sounding board it just seems like a hiding to nothing.

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220427

Postby bungeejumper » May 9th, 2019, 1:28 pm

GoSeigen wrote:Typical. We have an environment where it is seen as de rigueur to view entire sections of human population as little more than monkeys for no better reason than how they look, and you are worried about some idiot's job????

De rigueur? Among whom? Do you personally know anybody who thinks "entire sections of human population" can be regarded "as little more than monkeys for no better reason than how they look"?

I don't. If you do, please be specific about your sample size. If not, maybe reconsider your choice of words?

BJ

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220430

Postby GoSeigen » May 9th, 2019, 1:45 pm

bungeejumper wrote:
GoSeigen wrote:Typical. We have an environment where it is seen as de rigueur to view entire sections of human population as little more than monkeys for no better reason than how they look, and you are worried about some idiot's job????

De rigueur? Among whom? Do you personally know anybody who thinks "entire sections of human population" can be regarded "as little more than monkeys for no better reason than how they look"?

I don't. If you do, please be specific about your sample size. If not, maybe reconsider your choice of words?

BJ


And THAT is the underlying problem. The choice of words might not be perfect but it is a reasonable representation of the truth. Sorry it is not politically correct enough for you.



GS
P.S. Danny Baker is my witness -- how else did he imagine he could be interpreted as funny?

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220433

Postby Howyoudoin » May 9th, 2019, 1:54 pm

GoSeigen wrote:
bungeejumper wrote:
GoSeigen wrote:Typical. We have an environment where it is seen as de rigueur to view entire sections of human population as little more than monkeys for no better reason than how they look, and you are worried about some idiot's job????

De rigueur? Among whom? Do you personally know anybody who thinks "entire sections of human population" can be regarded "as little more than monkeys for no better reason than how they look"?

I don't. If you do, please be specific about your sample size. If not, maybe reconsider your choice of words?

BJ


And THAT is the underlying problem. The choice of words might not be perfect but it is a reasonable representation of the truth. Sorry it is not politically correct enough for you.
GS


I'm about as far as you can get from being PC but even I have no idea what you are talking about.

HYD

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220434

Postby bungeejumper » May 9th, 2019, 2:02 pm

GoSeigen wrote:P.S. Danny Baker is my witness -- how else did he imagine he could be interpreted as funny?

LOL, we probably agree on more than you think. Yes, he deserves to lose his job because he's been a twat. He gets paid a shedload of public money to watch his public image, and he should have taken more care not to make that sort of mistake. Whether he meant the slur or not.

OTOH, extrapolating his goof into a claim that wider society thinks it's all right (or even de rigueur) to make racist jokes is going just a teensy bit too far. I do thank you, however, for calling me politically correct. It's a badge of honour that I shall wear with pride. :lol:

BJ

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220456

Postby dionaeamuscipula » May 9th, 2019, 3:16 pm

I've followed Baker's career since he was the receptionist at the NME. From everything I have seen or heard of him I don't believe he meant the tweet to be racist or have racist connotations, not least because I don't think he would have posted it if it did. But it was in the context monumentally ill-considered.

I think it is slightly unfair of the BBC to fire him, but they are within their rights to do so (I am not sure whether or not he was actually an employee), and I suspect there is a reputation clause in whatever contract controlled the production of the show.

Of course he has been fired from the BBC before. He has long railed that with the exception of his Saturday morning show, he can't get hired to do radio anymore, despite his multiple Sony awards.

DM

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220461

Postby djbenedict » May 9th, 2019, 3:32 pm

dionaeamuscipula wrote:He has long railed that with the exception of his Saturday morning show, he can't get hired to do radio anymore, despite his multiple Sony awards.


Amazing! Can't think why.

What a cretin.

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220464

Postby StepOne » May 9th, 2019, 3:41 pm

GoSeigen wrote:P.S. Danny Baker is my witness -- how else did he imagine he could be interpreted as funny?


It's a photo of a chimp wearing clothes. That's always been viewed as funny, hasn't it? Admittedly the chimp part is not used so much these days, but if you look on instagram, facebook, twitter you will see millions of photos of animals in human clothes intended to amuse.

Please note, I'm not commenting on the current incident, or condoning it in anyway. I'm just telling GS how it might be possible to think it was a funny photo.

Cheers,
StepOne

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220465

Postby StepOne » May 9th, 2019, 3:44 pm

dionaeamuscipula wrote:From everything I have seen or heard of him I don't believe he meant the tweet to be racist or have racist connotations, not least because I don't think he would have posted it if it did. But it was in the context monumentally ill-considered.


Spot on BM, he is not a racist, and the firing looks to me like an opportunistic cost-cutting measure. He'll get a job somewhere else easily enough.

It is unfortunately the way things are going - people get judged on a single incident/tweet/comment, rather than everyone looking at the bigger picture.

StepOne

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220473

Postby bungeejumper » May 9th, 2019, 4:03 pm

StepOne wrote:It's a photo of a chimp wearing clothes. That's always been viewed as funny, hasn't it? Admittedly the chimp part is not used so much these days, but if you look on instagram, facebook, twitter you will see millions of photos of animals in human clothes intended to amuse.

Hmmm, it was made in the context of a royal birth, which added a certain specificity to the occasion. This was not a discussion as to what brand of teacup a tea-drinking chimp might prefer. As such, Mr Baker should have foreseen that people would make the connection between chimp and baby, whether it was intended or not. He goofed, badly, and he's paying the professional price.

I'm guessing that Channel 4 will have snapped him up within a week. Although personally, I've never really understood what it is that other people see in Mr Baker, so who am I to judge in any case? His humour has always struck me as either (a) too arcane for me to understand, or (b) not very good anyway. :|

Either way, some day he'll laugh about this. Was it really worse than Kenny Everett's transgressions?

BJ

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220486

Postby Slarti » May 9th, 2019, 4:52 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:Did he tweet to a BBC account? That would look like a disciplinary matter.

But it seems horribly totalitarian to dismiss someone for things done outside of work!


Saw it on the news at lunchtime and I gather he had a stand up row with one of the bosses and they decided to part ways.

Not the first time he's been chucked off the BBC, though.

Slarti

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220488

Postby stevensfo » May 9th, 2019, 4:57 pm

I thought it was just very funny and was perplexed at the 'racist' tag at first. How on earth is it racist? Surely this speaks volumes about the people who first started squeaking about it. I'm not a great watcher of the Royals so may be a bit out of date, but I have never, ever thought for one millisecond about Harry's bride in terms of race. So for me, the picture was funny. If there are people who equate a chimpanzee to human races with more melanin in their skin, then they are complete idiots and are indirectly fueling racism.

I reminds me of the case a few years ago where a boy model was modelling a teeshirt with 'Little monkey' on it. The 'outrage/gobsmacked/gone viral' morons were on it immediately because the boy happened to be black. The boy's mother couldn't understand what the fuss was about and her disgust with the pathetic bleating idiots soon shut them up, but this sort of thing seems to be the norm these days. When will these people realise that their readiness to scream 'racist' at everything only serves to keep the cancer of racism going and feeds the shock/horror tabloid style of commentary.

Steve

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220490

Postby Howyoudoin » May 9th, 2019, 5:02 pm

Slarti wrote:
UncleEbenezer wrote:Did he tweet to a BBC account? That would look like a disciplinary matter.

But it seems horribly totalitarian to dismiss someone for things done outside of work!


Saw it on the news at lunchtime and I gather he had a stand up row with one of the bosses and they decided to part ways.

Not the first time he's been chucked off the BBC, though.

Slarti



He was fired over the phone during a call to his home this morning. 'Stand up row with one of the bosses'? Nah.

HYD

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Re: Danny Baker fired by BBC over royal baby chimp tweet

#220597

Postby Slarti » May 10th, 2019, 8:59 am

Howyoudoin wrote:
Slarti wrote:
UncleEbenezer wrote:Did he tweet to a BBC account? That would look like a disciplinary matter.

But it seems horribly totalitarian to dismiss someone for things done outside of work!


Saw it on the news at lunchtime and I gather he had a stand up row with one of the bosses and they decided to part ways.

Not the first time he's been chucked off the BBC, though.

Slarti



He was fired over the phone during a call to his home this morning. 'Stand up row with one of the bosses'? Nah.

HYD


That is what he said when interviewed on his front doorstep.

Who am I to contradict him?

Slarti


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