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Naga Munchetty reprimanded by the BBC

Ha! There are plenty of non cockwomble types, of course, and many many valid complaints. Shall we say, perhaps, that it’s just that the busybody/cockwomble demographic is more than adequately represented in the corpus of complaints received by most formal complaints-handling bodies?
My complaints were great. The best, in fact!
 
Christ you would think she was a cross between Rosa Parks and Joan of Arc the way you lot are carrying on.

For sure she was on the wrong side of a poor decision by the BBC Management but most people suffer with crap bosses.

And let’s face it she is certainly amply paid for her limited talent.

Rai
 
Christ you would think she was a cross between Rosa Parks and Joan of Arc the way you lot are carrying on.

For sure she was on the wrong side of a poor decision by the BBC Management but most people suffer with crap bosses.

And let’s face it she is certainly amply paid for her limited talent.

Rai
People are annoyed at the obvious injustice done to Munchetty. But we can also see the bigger picture here. The BBC needs to figure out what its position is on impartiality - especially in relation to racism. Is it going to be another case of "He thinks it's good, she thinks it's bad, here's the news from your areas", or is their coverage of the issue going to start from the basis that, actually, racism is wrong? Because that's going to make a big difference over the next few years.

The situation also crystallises problems around transparency, accountability, governance and equality at the BBC, important when dealing with the single most influential media organisation in the country. How did a decision as bad as this happen? Who makes these decisions? As it stands, there's no reason to believe that we'll ever know. Meanwhile BAME employees are talking about a "climate of fear" at the BBC. There's nothing new about any of this but we've reached a tipping point with this case, and we can either say: "Oh well, mistakes happen, they've said sorry, definitely nothing to learn from all this", or we can demand answers, and change.
 
People are annoyed at the obvious injustice done to Munchetty. But we can also see the bigger picture here. The BBC needs to figure out what its position is on impartiality - especially in relation to racism. Is it going to be another case of "He thinks it's good, she thinks it's bad, here's the news from your areas", or is their coverage of the issue going to start from the basis that, actually, racism is wrong? Because that's going to make a big difference over the next few years.

The situation also crystallises problems around transparency, accountability, governance and equality at the BBC, important when dealing with the single most influential media organisation in the country. How did a decision as bad as this happen? Who makes these decisions? As it stands, there's no reason to believe that we'll ever know. Meanwhile BAME employees are talking about a "climate of fear" at the BBC. There's nothing new about any of this but we've reached a tipping point with this case, and we can either say: "Oh well, mistakes happen, they've said sorry, definitely nothing to learn from all this", or we can demand answers, and change.

You raise some good points about insufficient accountability and transparency at the BBC. I would argue it is because of its size and the fact that it is state funded. At various times they have tried to keep the wages they pay their stars out of the public domain for fear of public backlash...FFS look at how much the judges get paid on Strictly Come Dancing or the autocue readers on the One Show.

Ray
 
I can recommend Michael Moore’s film on how Trump was elected, Fahrenheit 11-9, if anybody has not seen it. The poisoning of Flint is particularly disturbing and made me consider at what point should the ballot box be replaced by pitch forks and lanterns as the correct means to bring about social change.

Absolutely no. If the current politics of US and the UK is anything to go by the right wing, anti rule of law, anti-democratic forces of authoritarianism will control who the sharps bits are pointed at.
 
And let’s face it she is certainly amply paid for her limited talent.

Interesting that in Diane Abbot and Naga Munchetty we’ve had two women of colour brought up in recent threads and the reaction to both from the right wingers, regardless of the very different issues, is very similar.

Attacking them for their supposed lack of intelligence or competence seems to be a very thin proxy for attacking their colour or their gender
 
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Interesting that in Diane Abbot and Naga Munchetty we’ve had two women of colour brought up in recent threads and the reaction to both from the right wingers, regardless of the very different issues, is very similar.

Attacking them for their intelligence or their competence seems to be a very thin proxy for attacking their colour or their gender
It’s no coincidence that so much of his interest revolves around denigrating two prominent black women while becoming activated when a story about a favoured sportsman’s conviction for holding a woman on the floor and punching her face twenty times is discussed.
 
You raise some good points about insufficient accountability and transparency at the BBC. I would argue it is because of its size and the fact that it is state funded. At various times they have tried to keep the wages they pay their stars out of the public domain for fear of public backlash...FFS look at how much the judges get paid on Strictly Come Dancing or the autocue readers on the One Show.

Ray
Size makes things difficult, but not that difficult. State funding ought not to be a problem in itself: God knows the private sector isn't known for its transparency and accountability, especially the media sector (not really known for VFM salaries either). I can well imagine the old men who make up the complaints committee wondering why their friends at The Times and The Telegraph can basically do whatever the hell they like, while they find themselves apologising to an uppity black woman. The difference is actually state funding, and the duty to the public that accompanies it.

There are some straightforward things we could insist on to make sure that state funding doesn't mean state capture: end government appointments to the BBC Board, and set up an independent body to deal with the license fee. They also need to do address their diversity issues, starting with listening to the Black Members Committee of the media union BECTU.
 
Interesting that in Diane Abbot and Naga Munchetty we’ve had two women of colour brought up in recent threads and the reaction to both from the right wingers, regardless of the very different issues, is very similar.

Attacking them for their intelligence or their competence seems to be a very thin proxy for attacking their colour or their gender

Exactly.

Munchetty didn't actually call Trump a racist, but the world knows he is. It was obvious before he was elected and many Americans voted for him precisely because he is a racist.

The same is true of Johnson. Watching Adam Boulton have a discussion on Sky News with three Tories about whether their Party is Islamophobic is absurd. Of course it is and so is their leader.

Jack
 
Exactly.

Munchetty didn't actually call Trump a racist, but the world knows he is. It was obvious before he was elected and many Americans voted for him precisely because he is a racist.

The same is true of Johnson. Watching Adam Boulton have a discussion on Sky News with three Tories about whether their Party is Islamophobic is absurd. Of course it is and so is their leader.

Jack

I thought it was interesting listening to the reports last night that they said ‘a racist tweet by...’ - in legal speak, I’m pretty sure that means the BBC itself is acknowledging that the tweets were racist. It’s more than reporting that she said the tweets were racist. So the world knows he’s a racist, but the BBC is going so far as to say so openly.

Reminds me of the Mash Report a few weeks ago getting BBC legal permission to call BJ a liar.
 


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