BBC presenter sacked over royal baby chimpanzee tweet

Image shows couple holding hands with a chimpanzee with the caption 'Royal baby leaves hospital'


News Desk May 09, 2019
Tweet shows image of couple holding hands with a chimpanzee dressed in clothes with the caption 'royal baby leaves hospital'.PHOTO COURTESY: TWITTER/@DannyBaker

The BBC on Thursday fired a staffer for posting a photo on Twitter that compared the new royal baby to a chimpanzee.

According to the BBC, the now deleted tweet, which has been circulated on social media, showed an image of a couple holding hands with a chimpanzee dressed in clothes with the caption, "Royal Baby leaves hospital".

61-year-old radio presenter Danny Baker, who presented a weekend show on the network, was accused of mocking the duchess's racial heritage.

"This was a serious error of judgement," a BBC spokesperson said, adding that Baker's tweet "goes against the values we as a station aim to embody. Danny's a brilliant broadcaster but will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us".

After tweeting an apology, calling his tweet a "stupid unthinking gag pic", Baker tweeted about the BBC's decision, saying: "The call to fire me... was a masterclass of pompous faux-gravity".

Speaking to the media outside his house, he told reporters, "I do not, not understand all of this, I get it. But for 5 Live to chuck us under the bus like this, dear lord."

When quizzed on what he would do next, he added, "I'm annoyingly ebullient and if you're accused of the kind of grotesque racism but you're not, you don't wring your hands. Ill advised, ill thought out and stupid but racist? No, I'm aware how delicate that imagery is."

Harry and Meghan, whose mother Doria Ragland is African-American, have named their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

 

COMMENTS (1)

owaiskhan | 4 years ago | Reply Monarchy simple !!!
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