BBC Sacks Broadcaster Over Racist Tweet About New Royal Baby – TheNigerialawyer

A BBC radio personality was fired on Thursday after tweeting an
image of a couple holding hands with a suited chimpanzee alongside
the caption: “Royal Baby leaves hospital”, according to Nytimes.com
reports

The radio host, Danny Baker, who had an anarchic Saturday
morning call-in show on the British broadcaster’s national news and
sports station, Radio 5 Live, posted the tweet Wednesday evening,
hours after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex introduced their newborn
son to the world.

Mr Baker deleted his tweet within hours, but it circulated
widely online and drew outrage for its racist imagery. British
social media users called for the BBC to fire him.

He announced his firing with another tweet Thursday morning.
Radio 5 Live confirmed the news in a statement, calling Mr Baker’s
initial tweet a “serious error of judgment” that “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,” the statement read.

The newest addition to the British royal family — Archie
Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor — is also the monarchy’s first
multiracial baby in recent history.

He is half-American through his mother, Meghan, Duchess of
Sussex, and some of his ancestors were born into slavery.

The baby’s arrival has captivated the world, and he has been
seen by many as a symbol of change within the British monarchy. His
multiracial identity has also become a symbol of greater inclusion
for a long-marginalized group.

Earlier, Mr Baker had attempted an apology, tweeting first:
“Sorry my gag pic of the little fella in the posh outfit has
whipped some up. Never occurred to me because, well, mind not
diseased,” and then: “Once again. Sincere apologies for the stupid
unthinking gag pic earlier. Was supposed to be joke about royals vs
circus animals in posh clothes but interpreted as about monkeys
& race, so rightly deleted.”

But the damage had been done. Critics were swift to call out
both Mr Baker’s initial post and those that attempted to explain
away the situation.

The Duchess, better known as Meghan Markle, has been the target
of abuse from the British tabloid press in the past. In 2016,
Prince Harry condemned “racial undertones” in coverage of their
relationship.

The royal family this year introduced social media guidelines
for engaging with its myriad accounts following reports of abuse,
noting that promoting “discrimination based on race” — among other
things — would not be tolerated.

Charlene White, a newscaster for Britain’s ITV network, pointed
to that history and “veiled racist abuse” of the Duchess from the
start of the couple’s relationship.

“To post a pic picturing a 3-day-old baby of mixed heritage as a
monkey, then claim it was a joke?” she wrote in the tweet. “That’s
old-school prejudice and racism at its peak. And for a trusted
broadcaster working at a public service broadcaster to feed that
prejudice? It’s unacceptable.”

Mr Baker has been fired from broadcasting jobs before, including
at Radio 5 Live. The station previously dropped him in 1997, after
he said on a soccer show that he would understand if fans
physically attacked a referee.

But he appeared unrepentant after his dismissal on Thursday,
describing the BBC’s phone call to inform him of the decision as “a
masterclass of pompous faux-gravity.”

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