Image by Getty Images via Daylife
The headlines about the BBC this week have been all about Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, and those prank phone calls.
Google News has almost 6,000 news articles on the story.
So far the outcry has resulted in the resignations of Brand and Radio 2 boss Lesley Douglas, and a three month suspension for Ross.
Much of the media coverage has focused of the 18,000 complaints (and counting) about the ill-advised prank.
Less reported is the reaction from BBC Radio One’s online forum which suggests that many young people take this less seriously. Comments on the BBC News website also suggest opinion is far more divided than might appear from the media coverage.
The BBC itself has noted that “there is an alternative view we are seeing strongly expressed by our young audience which is certainly worth wider consideration.”
Among the comments from these younger listeners; “Everybody needs to calm down”; “It was funny, a joke. People are so boring”; “Leave Russell alone”; “Hey, they are comedians – it’s their job”; and “It’s been blown out of all proportion.”
So what do you think?
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3b174389-59a6-481c-8b0d-7f8b7870cec1)
PDF
Excellent post – was going to vote but realised that it’s not that simple – storm in a tea cup? It would be if the frenzied coverage had not raised important questions about BBC news values, the licence fee debate & the corporation’s blinkered solipsistic navel gazing. Yesterday the Ross/Brand prank led every single BBC news bulletin, ahead of real stories such as Goma, oil company profits & the ilk. Obviously, I understand the appeal of the story with its larger-than-life characters but some key points – such as the size of Ross’s pay packet – seem to have been obfuscated along the way.
Your point about “Yoof” not really worrying about the excesses of this kind of “edgy comedy” has also been overlooked. It seems that one listener’s edgy comedian is another’s obscene prankster?
Thanks for your insights! Best Dee
The whole thing does highlight the power the media has (in this case the Mail on Sunday newspaper) to whip up ‘outrage’ on an item that received only two complaints when broadcast. It became a battering ram for knocking (perhaps deservedly) the perceived accountability of the BBC, a publicly funded organization together with a chance to kick Jonathan Ross for his large salary (now suspended for 3 months with no pay working out at £15,000 per day)and the niche-orientated humour of Russell Brand (his programme is not aimed at the great majority of those that complained and most would not have tuned in to hear it). Whilst the incident shows a marked lack of judgment in allowing this dubious outpouring onto a senior actors answer machine it still seems to me a shame that the media can’t whip the public up into a frenzy over very much larger injustices in this world.
I’m 22, and while I can completely understand that the spotlight being put on issues like censorship and accountability is a good thing, the level of frenzy is completely ridiculous to me and most of my peers.
The ‘common sense view’ is furthered by the facts that Sachs gave permission for the recordings to be broadcast, so the Beeb not only flagged that it could have been an issue but issued a warning prior to the programme. Em2 is right, I’m far more riled that Gordon Brown found time to comment on this while staying tight lipped on the UN’s abandonment of Congolese people this week.
The escalation of this is entirely down to the Daily Mail and its ‘something-must-be-done’ schtick for selling papers. Check out the third page in that publication every day if you really want to see obscenity dressed up as ‘harmless entertainment.’