Gaspode_The_Wonder_Dog wrote:Aled wrote:So are we saying you're the authority on what's offensive?
Didn't you just decide you were in an earlier post? Anyway its missing the point entirely.
Only in that, it is part of my job to gauge where the line is. I don't get it right every time - but I see every complaint that gets made about the show so I'm pretty knowledgeable in what offends our audience.
That's not to say that common sense doesn't play a part in the judgement. If I got a complaint - even if it was a couple of hundred complaints (and therefore possibly a campaign) that speaking derogatory of mouldy apples offended people - We wouldn't be banning the conversation!
But tastes change. The line about what is acceptable moves naturally as society changes. I've witnessed it during the lifetime of our show. Telling people who are genuinely offended by stuff - oh it's PC gone made isn't very fair. Often it's the only thing people throw up as a way of expressing the frustration that something they'd said out of habit all their lives is now considered 'wrong'.
Let me give you one example. I remember working in the daytime office in Radio 1 - so that would have been within the last 9 years - and someone on Jo Whiley's team put their phone on loudspeaker. It was Lenny Henry who left a voice message expressing disappointment in us for playing a song with the 'N' word in it. I remember my reaction was shock, and thinking he was being a bit sensitive and over reacting but the word wasn't used in an angry way. A few of us had a discussion as to whether there was anything in it, and I think the end judgement was the 'N' word was continued to be used in that case.
I'm white. And at that time the word was used. Lenny showed us through complaining that there were black people who were becoming offended and were feeling uncomfortable with that word. I didn't get it.
Fast forward 9 years and the 'N' word is one of the 4 most sinful words for the BBC and you will not hear it on Radio 1 without permission from the highest level.
I'd imagine no one here would disagree with that. Now, it's an extreme to make my point. But it happened. Now imagine the million of grays inbetween the obvious black and white and the many ways that acceptable line sits across what people say and joke about and imagine how fluid that like is.
The BBC is part of the conversation and it reflects society, but a mainstream breakfast show owned by the BBC (i.e. you and everyone else that pays the licence fee) is not the place to challenge where the line is. If someone is honestly offended by something it has to be discussed and taken seriously whether we agree with it or not.
chrismoyles.net
