Film, Media & TV4 mins ago
At the risk of rehashing this old debate...
ITV has been cleared of racism by TV watchdog Ofcom after Sir Trevor McDonald called the late controversial comic Bernard Manning a "fat, white *******".
A total of 112 viewers complained that the remark, made on Sir Trevor's ITV1 Sunday night news comedy programme News Knight the week Manning died, was inappropriate or racist.
But Ofcom said Sir Trevor "clearly intended to parody" Manning's own brand of comedy, which played on racial stereotypes and was often denounced as racist.
The regulator cleared ITV of breaching broadcasting guidelines, ruling that "any offence that may have been caused was justified by the context".
During the June 24 edition of News Knight, less than a week after Manning's death aged 76, Sir Trevor introduced an item as "Racist and Dead".
"This week, it's the turn of corpulent, narrow-minded northerner Bernard Manning," he said. "Personally, I never thought of Bernard Manning as a racist comic... just a fat, white *******...".
In its ruling, Ofcom pointed out that News Knight was broadcast at 10pm, a full hour after the 9pm watershed and that it was clearly "an edgy, satirical look at the week's news".
"In the case of this programme, Sir Trevor McDonald obviously, and intentionally, drew on Bernard Manning's own style of humour, which frequently played on the real or apparent prejudices of his audience.
"The comments were clearly intended to parody Manning's own comedy, where he claimed he was not himself racist, but simply made 'jokes' based on racial stereotypes," Ofcom said.
"It was in such a context that Sir Trevor McDonald could therefore state that he did not consider Manning to be a racist but then went on to say that he was '...a fat white *******'".
Justice was done then?
A total of 112 viewers complained that the remark, made on Sir Trevor's ITV1 Sunday night news comedy programme News Knight the week Manning died, was inappropriate or racist.
But Ofcom said Sir Trevor "clearly intended to parody" Manning's own brand of comedy, which played on racial stereotypes and was often denounced as racist.
The regulator cleared ITV of breaching broadcasting guidelines, ruling that "any offence that may have been caused was justified by the context".
During the June 24 edition of News Knight, less than a week after Manning's death aged 76, Sir Trevor introduced an item as "Racist and Dead".
"This week, it's the turn of corpulent, narrow-minded northerner Bernard Manning," he said. "Personally, I never thought of Bernard Manning as a racist comic... just a fat, white *******...".
In its ruling, Ofcom pointed out that News Knight was broadcast at 10pm, a full hour after the 9pm watershed and that it was clearly "an edgy, satirical look at the week's news".
"In the case of this programme, Sir Trevor McDonald obviously, and intentionally, drew on Bernard Manning's own style of humour, which frequently played on the real or apparent prejudices of his audience.
"The comments were clearly intended to parody Manning's own comedy, where he claimed he was not himself racist, but simply made 'jokes' based on racial stereotypes," Ofcom said.
"It was in such a context that Sir Trevor McDonald could therefore state that he did not consider Manning to be a racist but then went on to say that he was '...a fat white *******'".
Justice was done then?
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Agree with Ofcom.
Taken in isolation, the comment was breathtakingly offensive and racist, but clearly it was said with the express intention that the audience would understand the satire.
Apparently the irony was too much for some.
Who do we think complained then? The so-called 'PC Brigade', or the sort of thickos who used to say Bernard Manning wasn't offensive?
Know who my money's on.
Taken in isolation, the comment was breathtakingly offensive and racist, but clearly it was said with the express intention that the audience would understand the satire.
Apparently the irony was too much for some.
Who do we think complained then? The so-called 'PC Brigade', or the sort of thickos who used to say Bernard Manning wasn't offensive?
Know who my money's on.
seems like the right call - it was only an impression of Manningesque style humour... leaves people who claim that manning wasn't offensive but that Trevor was in a funny position though doesn't - either they say what Trevor said was offensive and thus Manning himself must have been offensive as the comment was in his style, meaning the have lost their argument about manning's style of comedy OR they say it wasn't offensive at all and they lose their argument about whether trevor was offensive...
(does that make any sense?)
(does that make any sense?)
Whilst I was not in the least bit offended by sit Trevors words, I believe they could have been less controversial.
Yes the humour was a parody and indeed subversive, but if a white man said it about a coloured chap, he would probably lose his job.
Besides, it is fair to say Sir Trevor is only in the position he is because he is coloured. Jan Leeming is not a Dame is she? In fact are there any other news readers who have been knighted?
It is only since his retirement that he has branched out to other forms of presenting. This is Your Life, Best View In Britain (or whatever) and News Knight spring to mind. He is nothing special, but the politically correct brigade at British media centres seem fit to knight him. Tokenism to say the least.
And finally, it has to be said, although Bernard Manning was at times a little close to the edge, he was a very funny man.
Sir Trevor, on the other hand, can read the news. Whoopee do. I can't even remember him being a field agent at times of war etc like other news readers. I may be wrong, but that is what I remember.
Yes the humour was a parody and indeed subversive, but if a white man said it about a coloured chap, he would probably lose his job.
Besides, it is fair to say Sir Trevor is only in the position he is because he is coloured. Jan Leeming is not a Dame is she? In fact are there any other news readers who have been knighted?
It is only since his retirement that he has branched out to other forms of presenting. This is Your Life, Best View In Britain (or whatever) and News Knight spring to mind. He is nothing special, but the politically correct brigade at British media centres seem fit to knight him. Tokenism to say the least.
And finally, it has to be said, although Bernard Manning was at times a little close to the edge, he was a very funny man.
Sir Trevor, on the other hand, can read the news. Whoopee do. I can't even remember him being a field agent at times of war etc like other news readers. I may be wrong, but that is what I remember.
Waldo..........
Q) Why do Blacks carry dog poo in their wallet?
A) Identification.
Now, I do not for one minute find that particular joke funny. So before you hit the report button, bear in mind it was stated for this purpose.
However, it does not mean you do not understand the joke does it???
To understand a joke and find it funny are therefor etwo very different things. Also, I would argue, to be offended by a joke, one must understand it in the first place. I think perhaps Lucy is being funny, humour of which has clearly surpassed you.
Therefore, ergo, alas, thus, you have fallen prey to the very humour you in fact praised.
And this answer is too post-modern for me to really comprehend, but I know what I mean.
Q) Why do Blacks carry dog poo in their wallet?
A) Identification.
Now, I do not for one minute find that particular joke funny. So before you hit the report button, bear in mind it was stated for this purpose.
However, it does not mean you do not understand the joke does it???
To understand a joke and find it funny are therefor etwo very different things. Also, I would argue, to be offended by a joke, one must understand it in the first place. I think perhaps Lucy is being funny, humour of which has clearly surpassed you.
Therefore, ergo, alas, thus, you have fallen prey to the very humour you in fact praised.
And this answer is too post-modern for me to really comprehend, but I know what I mean.
Sadly, it doesn't work the other way. It's the double swticheroo - and the context doesn't generate humour here. So if Lucy was trying to be funny, she's slightly off-target.
- Bernard Manning made racists remark and came to be reviled because of the predictability of his views.
- A black newsreader breaks with expected behaviour and makes a remark that both bucks the usual behaviour of a newsreader and turns bigotry back on the bigot. It's this unexpectedness which, because of the context, gives rise to humour.
- A poster on AB makes a racists remark which is entirely in keeping with the sort of views you always find on AB. Because it's doesn't invert expected behaviour, it doesn't give rise to humour.
Then again, I don't think it was meant as joke anyway.
- Bernard Manning made racists remark and came to be reviled because of the predictability of his views.
- A black newsreader breaks with expected behaviour and makes a remark that both bucks the usual behaviour of a newsreader and turns bigotry back on the bigot. It's this unexpectedness which, because of the context, gives rise to humour.
- A poster on AB makes a racists remark which is entirely in keeping with the sort of views you always find on AB. Because it's doesn't invert expected behaviour, it doesn't give rise to humour.
Then again, I don't think it was meant as joke anyway.
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