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What should happen?

  • Sincere apology, end of story.

    Votes: 21 42.0%
  • Sack them, the fiends!

    Votes: 14 28.0%
  • It's so unimportant I just don't care.

    Votes: 15 30.0%

  • Total voters
    50
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Let's see if I have the facts right (I'm not from the UK). One of these guys has sex with a girl. He then calls the girls 78-year old grandfather and tells him that "I fu**ed your granddaughter. You might want to kill yourself from hearing this" (not a direct quote, but more or less accurate).
No. That's not how it went at all. The one who had sex with the girl wasn't the one that originally mentioned her, or used the profanity. The conversation started when the grandfather didn't pick up the phone and the pair decided to do a scheduled interview to the answerphone. However, as the girl had been discussed on a previous show the profanity was shouted over the top of the interview. The second and third calls started as an attempt to apologise, but failed completely because Brand ended up asking for the girl's hand in marriage and then singing his apologies. And the "kill yourself" part never happened, that was mentioned in the context of what effect the first call might have had on him, whilst the pair discussed how they owed the man a "heartfelt apology".
 
^ They made a stupid error of judgement. The furore from the thousands that never listened to it to begin with, and the whole media madness that's been constructed is the real "obscene" thing here....IMO.

So you need to have seen or heard it in order to disagree with someone's behaviour, or to find it inappropriate? :confused:

I'm not too bothered by this, but then again, to say that people are feigning anger, as they probably didn't even hear the broadcast is over-simplifying things. People can still get mad if they find out about it. That's why the news exists.

When I first read the story, I thought it was in really poor taste, and believe it or not, that they have no right to do what they did, since viewers and listeners are likely TV licence fee payers. I never even read the Daily Mail. I came up with that thought on my own. Impressed? And besides, even if someone didn't think of this when they first heard the news, they are certainly allowed to agree or disagree after I, or someone else, expresses this concern.
 
So you need to have seen or heard it in order to disagree with someone's behaviour, or to find it inappropriate? :confused:
The trouble is the print media have completely perverted the events into something they weren't, and it is the caricature that people are getting angry about rather than the reality. If you listen to the show, the two hosts are apologetic both to the audience and the grandfather after the first call, it's just they keep messing up their actual attempts to apologise during the subsequent phone calls. But the way the newspapers are spinning it the hosts rang someone out of the blue, swore at them, suggested they commit suicide, then continually rang them to drive the message home. That's not what happened.
 
Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas has resigned from her position.


EDIT: Jonathan Ross has been suspended for 12 weeks without pay.
 
Jonathon Ross suspended for three month

To all of the UK MacRumor people out there, Jonathon Ross has been suspended for three months, because of this media fiasco.

I don't believe the country we live in, I think there were more complaints received than people who listened to the radio show!

Firstly, the producer is to blame - period.
Secondly, people only complained because the media made a song and dance about it, some people will follow any bandwagon.

I think a public apology, slapped wrist and no Friday Night tomorrow would have been enough. What are your thoughts? I ask you guys because I hope that being Mac users you are able to think for yourselves :D
 
Oops, didn't see this thread...
Anyway, still think it stinks and glad to see the majority of MR folk do too :apple:
 
I think after Sachs saying he was happy with Ross' apology this kind of treatment is ridiculous. Bloody Daily Mail reading public :(
 
While I do think that Russell and Jonathan did go too far, the whole incident has been completely blown out of proportion. If you heard the actual radio show and know the entire context of the 'incident', you would realise that it is nowhere near as bad as the media have made it sound. There were only 2 complaints on the day it was broadcast, and a further 3 in the whole week afterwards! 30,000 people complained based only upon the exaggerated media reports of it.

I am a big fan of Russell Brand, and have listened to the podcast of his radio show pretty much every week for over two years. I will greatly miss it, and I can only hope that another company, perhaps Channel 4 can give him another radio show/podcast. It wasn't the number 1 podcast on iTunes for nothing.
 
Ya know, I left the UK in 1998 and I would have thought that by now the BBC would have known better than to hire Jonathan Ross in the first place. The guy was a twit and appears he hasn't ceased being one. Russell Brand, meh, he can be funny - not quite my sense of humor, but better than a lot of stuff out there and absolutely better than anything offered over here on mainstream tv.
 
Well I'm still sticking to what i said earlier in this thread & that is they are a couple of over paid pr*cks, good riddance Brand as for Ross the tosser he should have had the decency to quit also, the blokes a effing idiot
 
With only the editors / producers who okayed the broadcast left to be fired this affair has almost reached it's conclusion. As I posted earlier, I do believe that Ross should also be fired and has escaped lightly with his suspension, and I speak as someone who enjoys watching him - with the exception of his god awful film review programme!

However, as this video of George Alagiah questioning Mark Thompson shows, it has once again highlighted the BBC at it's absolute best. It also adds some credibility to a story I read - I don't remember where - that the BBC News (who recently suffered redundancies as a result of cutbacks) are indulging in some schadenfreude at the expense of Jonathan Ross, who they see as overpaid, in keeping it as a lead story for so long.
 
Welcome to the world of the Daily Mail.

Last night on the BBC news they showed that the number of complaints on the day, 1, and the day after 2 in total. Then after the Mail checked in the number of complaints soared to the dizzy hieghts of 30,000+ or whatever it stands at now.

The people who complained probably didn't even listen to the show or have listened since.

Yes it was bad, but the level it has been taken to by the media is far far beyond what was necessary and called for.

This is actually a boost to Brand's career as he can now move over to LA and get on with his films.

Ross on the other hand, who actually was the instigator of the abuse, will get a lot more flack. But in all honesty it doesn't really make much difference to him as he is already quite wealthy.
 
Well I'm still sticking to what i said earlier in this thread & that is they are a couple of over paid pr*cks, good riddance Brand as for Ross the tosser he should have had the decency to quit also, the blokes a effing idiot
Obviously Ross isn't an idiot, considering he's made an absolute fortune out of his shows and been on television now for nearly three decades. Brand isn't going to be hurt by this. His second book is well on its way and Channel 4 are going to see bigger viewing figures for Ponderland thanks to all the publicity.

The only losers in this are the likes of me who like to listen to Radio 2, a station to which the vast majority of those who complained probably never tune their radios to. So a big thanks to them for being so melo-effing-dramatic, and I hope one day I get the opportunity to return the favour and take away something they enjoy.
 
Obviously Ross isn't an idiot, considering he's made an absolute fortune out of his shows and been on television now for nearly three decades. Brand isn't going to be hurt by this. His second book is well on its way and Channel 4 are going to see bigger viewing figures for Ponderland thanks to all the publicity.

Oh right so everyone who has money aint a idiot, I'm sorry but the blokes a over paid pr*ck, as for brand he's a over paid junky pr*ck
 
And as a reformed drug addict, Brand is actually an excellent spokesperson and fund-raiser for various re-hab centres.

Both got excellent viewing figures / listener figures. What the Mail reading public have done, is take away something a lot of people enjoyed listening to.

I for one, find 'Songs of Praise' quite offensive. I don't like 'Strictly...' , and I think that 'Hole in the Wall' is the worst piece of television ever broadcast. I'm paying for all of them with my licence fee.

But I'm also paying for things I like. That's the way it works. Sadly, a bunch of 'Outraged of Berkshire' Express and Mail reading band-wagon jumpers have now ruined two of the things I DID like from the BBC.

Doug
 
Talk about storm in a tea cup.

I think we shall give this thread a little rest for now, perhaps everyone should go and have a nice cup of tea and calm down a little.
 
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