[MGSA-L] BBC Jolly Fun: response to 8 June complaint

Chris Williams troianovagroup at hotmail.com
Fri Jun 12 14:29:27 PDT 2015


All,

FYI - BBC response and my reply.

Chris

.......................................

Reply:



Thank you
for your reply, which is not an apology for your colleague’s behaviour. 

 

I note your
comments about traditional British humour. As a Yorkshireman I do not recognise
the BBC’s description of ‘British’ humour. In particular, I do not accept the
BBC’s assertion that ‘recognised and traditional’ British humour consists of
mocking foreigners; indeed, I reject that assertion, just as many of us rejected
the distasteful ‘humour’ broadcast on the BBC about the Irish some years ago. Does
your definition of ‘recognised and traditional’ British humour extend to, for
example, off-the –cuff-remarks by professional broadcasters about the Jews, as
well as jokes about the Greeks and the Irish?

 

I shall of
course be taking this further, after I have circulated the correspondence for
wider consultation. 

 

It will
assist the progress of this if you would let me have your definition of ‘financial
sector humour’, which from your email appears to provide some explanation for
the incident. Please let me have the BBC’s definition of this ‘financial sector
humour’.

 

I look
forward to your response.

 

Yours
sincerely,

 

Chris
Williams 


From: bbc_complaints_website at bbc.co.uk
To: troianovagroup at hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2015 12:39:35 +0100
Subject: BBC Complaints - Case number CAS-3342701-CSDZB4

Dear Dr Williams



Reference CAS-3342701-CSDZB4



Thank you for contacting us about ‘Wake up to Money’ as broadcast on 8th June 2015.



I understand you’re contacting us today as you feel an inappropriate comment was made about the Greek financial crisis.



I appreciate your frustration with this and wish to assure you we would never intentionally offend any of our audience members and as such I’ve reviewed this segment to provide further context with which to address your concerns.



On this occasion our presenter said ‘we would love to hear your stories of keeping calm in a crisis and maybe we will... um...pass them onto the Greeks.’



This was an off the cuff remark made by our presenter and was merely an attempt at financial sector humour however we acknowledge you believe it fell short of the mark. It is a recognised and traditional part of British humour to make jokes about other countries. For example, the English are lampooned as "stuck up" and superior in their attitude to other nations.



One can argue that telling jokes about any country in a crisis such as this is wrong but usually such jokes are affectionate and free from malice. We do not wish to compile a list of banned subjects but do try to ensure that jokes on certain subjects are not overdone, and also that they are genuinely funny. Again we acknowledge you do not believe this was appropriate.



It should be noted your feedback is very important to us and as such I have placed your concerns on an overnight report. This is a document which is made available to senior staff, programme editors and news teams across the BBC.  



Audience feedback helps to guide us and allows us find congruence between our output and audience expectations. It also means your comments can be seen quickly and can be consulted in future broadcasting and policy decisions.



Thanks again for getting in touch. 





Kind regards



Sean Lonergan

BBC Complaints

www.bbc.co.uk/complaints



NB This is sent from an outgoing account only which is not monitored. You cannot reply to this email address but if necessary please contact us via our webform quoting any case number we provided.



  		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://maillists.uci.edu/pipermail/mgsa-l/attachments/20150612/896a2057/attachment.html>


More information about the MGSA-L mailing list