The problem in Mr Bakers case is one of context and intent.

The diseased mind comment could be a reference to himself, as in “who would have enough of a diseased mind to post an image like that as an insult?”

Or as “who ever saw the image and thought it was racist clearly has a diseased mind”.

The problem like with most tweets is that it can easily be read either way.

Which is why people in these situations really need to think before they post a knee jerk response.

If they don’t they end up paying the price.

Facewon wrote:

Getting fired as punishment has issues, however, if we're talking glossing over, one of the reasons folks are ambivalent (myself included) about celebs being fired is the loooooong history of them getting away with any old shit, and not only not getting fired, but continuing with massive pay days and no sanctions at all. See Eddie Maguire out here. President of massive football club, ubiquitous TV personality. Host of a show where his off sider makes clarkson look like contra points. Suggests Adam Goodes would be great as promo guy for King Kong. The week after a fan of his club called Goodes a monkey and goodes had to point her out and had her removed. Big apologies from all. So sincere. Goodes, of course, is aboriginal. He's an absolute champion of the game. And was all but forced to retire because of copping it from fans AFTER that incident. Maguire has gone on to say dumb shit about disabled folk and some other howlers. Meanwhile, monkey comments, blackface Nd other such fuckery continue. In tandem with massive racist structure. Won't someone think of the boomer age white blokes and their oblivious comments! Ffs.

I guess the one substantial difference between Baker and McGuire is that many Australians know the latter's form. He has been doing borderline racist/actual racist and generally offensive shit for years, occasionally acting as a "good cop" foil to effectively condone while weakly condemning the more racist acts of Sam Newman. As a consequence, we know McGuire deserves no benefit of the doubt.

Baker on the other hand, we dont know (I dont) in aus.

It might be a genuine mistake, it might not. If Kyle Sandilands made the same post it would be met with criticism. If someone like Scott Stephens said it I would assume it was entirely unintentional and believe his apology.

I think Baker is a good person.

I believe it was unintentional and the apology both times was genuine.

I don’t believe he should have been sacked by the BBC.

I think his past statements, where he has criticised aspects of the BBC, coupled with the fire the BBC has come under for enabling racist things in the past, as well as the fact it was said with anti Royal sentiment coupled with Baker’s non-integral position in the BBC (and the BBCs tiresome pro-royal coverage) contribute greatly to his sacking. An easy target.

I also believe that the post was easy to construe as offensive, and I can understand why many minority people on twitter (where it was posted) have taken offence at it. Our old chum Ian Evenden wrote about it too, as his daughter is also mixed race, and the connotations of the image upset him. Given the current climate, the way minorities feel, the way we’re listing effortlessly into a white supremacist, conservative, alt-right political world that is doing morning but enshrine centuries of institutes of systematic oppression that constantly batter down those less privileged than us, and Baker, I totally understand the outrage.

I have my sympathy for Baker, I do not believe he should have been sacked after the apology, I find it deeply ironic that the Daily Mail turned up at his door given the shit they enable, but the connotations of the image he posted were deeply unpleasant, and if I can understand why black people may have been deeply offended by it.

It’s possible to hold all of those viewpoints at once without reducing this to a simplistic level.

Or post a pic. :}

dynamiteReady wrote:

...gross incompetence...

Given that it’s completely debatable whether or not being unaware of something you don’t need to know about for your job even qualifies as incompetence, it doesn’t even come close to gross incompetence. Please don’t throw around phrases like that to add to your argument.

That’s not what dynamiteReady said, though. He said that not knowing that Harry and Meghan were subject to sustained attacks and death threats (which I don’t doubt, but is nevertheless news to me) amounted to gross incompetence, which it doesn’t.

Whether or not he damaged their reputation is a whole other debate, which the BBC would lose before it even started.

Tempy wrote:

I also believe that the post was easy to construe as offensive, and I can understand why many minority people on twitter (where it was posted) have taken offence at it. Our old chum Ian Evenden wrote about it too, as his daughter is also mixed race, and the connotations of the image upset him. Given the current climate, the way minorities feel, the way we’re listing effortlessly into a white supremacist, conservative, alt-right political world that is doing morning but enshrine centuries of institutes of systematic oppression that constantly batter down those less privileged than us, and Baker, I totally understand the outrage.

This as well, though.

JonB wrote:

...Or would you rather save that kind of punishment for someone who actually does appear to be racist, or hateful in some other way?

After Brand and Wossy’s voice-message hijinks, one would presume that all radio personnel are on a short leash.

Not sure this is suitable for this thread, so apologies in advance if this post doesn’t come across well.

I’ve spent the afternoon in a beer garden at a local pub with family and friends. There’s a park and entertainment for children.

My 9 year old daughter Imogen was taking to to me about the bouncy castle and there was a boy she knew that everyone called “Monkey”, I asked “which boy?”, she replied “the one with the darker skin”.

I’ll be honest, I was shocked. I gave Imogen a talk about racism. It turned out the boy in question was called Monkey because “he’s good at climbing trees”.

I felt a bit of a fool, really, but I genuinely worried.

Both children should have notes entered on their permanent records and when they get their first jobs they should be immediately fired.

Kow wrote:

Friend of mine's kid, when she was about 2 or 3, was in a supermarket queue on her dad's shoulder. There was a black couple with kids behind them. For some reason unknown she decided to start roaring "I don't like black people" repeatedly. Cue much embarrassment on everyone's part. She was later fired.

To be fair, if she had apologised...

I still don't get what the argument is about. He's not racist, he still had to go. Himpathy, as mentioned elsewhere, is strong it seems. He'll be back on a station in no time. He still had to go.

Fry.png

I think it is probably time to put this to bed.
Most if not all in here are aligned as to the person, theres little point in arguing the toss over the sacking forever.

I was surprised to see so many pages of argument.