Friday, October 31, 2008

The Brand & Ross Sitrep

The situation as of today stands as follows:
BBC Action:
Russell Brand: - Resigned from his Radio 2 show! His TV Show on Channel 4 continues (I fleetingly saw him as I switched Channels - So checked the Schedules). As I indicated in my last post, he irritates me and I don't get his 'humour'.

Jonathan Ross: - Suspended for 12 Weeks without Pay (In effect a fine) and on final warning. I don't think this enough, but at least its something.

Legal Situation:
I still believe Brand and Ross actually broke the Law in two areas (see Brand and Ross Suspended by the BBC) and this remains outstanding,

Ofcom:
Still investigating.

Fallout at the BBC
Lesley Douglas: The controller of Radio 2, has resigned over the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand phone prank scandal.
Although she has done the honourable thing by accepting both responsibility and therefore accountability (something some of our leading Politicians need to learn), I regret that this Scandal has caused the end of her 23 year (and apparently unblemished) career with the BBC.
Mark Thompson: The BBC Director General had a difficult interview with Emily Maitlis on BBC Newsnight (see also BBC Newsnight Wikipedia Entry) but as once he was in the loop (on Holiday when this became a Scandal) took decisive action and therefore will probably be safe in his job for a while.

However during the Interview with Emily Maitlis the subject of a joke about the Queen on Mock The Week was raised. I am a fan of this show, but occasionally it does go beyond edgy into 'out of bounds territory' and I think this joke was an example. The fact it remained in for Broadcast was obviously an editorial decision and whilst I believe it was unacceptable, I and not sure if the majority of viewers would agree it went too far. This is part of the problem that faces all Comedy Shows, who decides the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable. Although the Brand and Ross radio show was so appalling it should have been a 'no brainer' to have deemed it unacceptable, a lot of the after the watershed comedy shows are 'edgy' and therefore the boundary between acceptable/unacceptable often going to be close.

Will I stop watching Mock the Week because of this one Joke?
NO - It was in bad taste, but it was single joke and in my opinion should not have been broadcast. The rest of that show I found very funny and my personal view is the rest of the jokes and banter did not actually cross the boundary. Unlike the Brand/Ross Situation there was no sustained stream of sub-juvenile behaviour.


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