So the newspaper websites are cock-a-hoop with the news that Jonathan Ross’s Radio 2 shows are to be pre-recorded in future. Leading the charge, naturally enough given its part in exposing the Brand/Sachs controversy, the Daily Mail says:
Yesterday the BBC confirmed that the controversial presenter’s Radio 2 show will no longer be broadcast live from today, but will be recorded on Fridays.
The action comes two weeks after Ross, 48, was accused of homophobia for jokingly suggesting parents should give gay sons up for adoption on the show.
He suggested mothers and fathers give their sons away if they ask for a Hannah Montana MP3 player, ‘before he brings his, erm, partner home’.
This appears to have been the final straw for radio bosses already petrified about further scandals enveloping the BBC’s highest paid act, on £6million a year.
[Pause for a while, as we consider what must have been a trying decision for Mail bosses: “Who do we hate more? The gays, or the BBC?”. And… we’re back in the room]
The tabloids have been keen to stoke up the implication that the move is causing a rift between Ross and his BBC bosses, but there’s no sign of that from Ross’s Twitter feed, seemingly happy to discuss the situation with his fans:
And, responding to concerns from Heat magazine’s Boyd Hilton that some of the show’s more interactive elements may suffer, he seems sanguine:
…while making the sort of self-deprecating joke about the situation that’s liable to get the tabloids all heated up again:
Before the anti-BBC and/or anti-Ross types hail this move as a victory, there’s one thing that needs to be borne in mind: the original Russell Brand show item which cause the whole storm in the first place was also pre-recorded. Part of the reason that Ofcom fined the Corporation a record £150,000 was that the compliance procedures, whereby controversial pre-recorded material had to be queried and either cleared or edited before broadcast, were not followed.
In the face of such a large fine, moving Ross’s Saturday show to a pre-recorded format was perhaps inevitable. But it does require that the people clearing the material for broadcast need to be much more alert and hands-on than they were in October 2008.
Oh please, leave the "poor" man alone. Everything will be so sanitised that it won't be worth listening to. And, no, I'm not a kid but in my 60s and enjoy listening to Ross even though he gets very close to the knuckle.
Take the man off air for good, PLEASE
WOSS A TWOSSER
It's a sad sign that people are so terribly offended by simple remarks. Generally, people need to grow up and get over such comments. It sounds as if he little anti-gay joke was hardly the most offensive thing ever. If this is all people have to worry about in thier life, they have a very simple life. And, ultimately, if any group of people feel offended by his remarks they wont watch/listen to his shows. No one is forcing gay guys to sit there and be verbally abused by Ross. Grow up and get over it!