"You can't just say sorry and then carry on like it's business as usual. When you have an incredibly important platform like he does, you do have to think about what you do and the signals that it sends out."<doc-sep>The broadcaster Danny Baker has been fired by BBC Radio 5 Live following allegations of racism over a tweet about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s newborn son, Archie, that featured a picture of a chimpanzee. The tweet, which has since been deleted by Baker, showed a black and white photo of a well-dressed couple next to a suited chimpanzee with the caption: “Royal baby leaves hospital.” Baker apologised for using the picture but was sacked on Thursday morning, leading him to lash out at the corporation over its handling of the incident. A BBC spokesperson said: “This was a serious error of judgment and 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.” Prince Harry and Meghan, whose mother is African American, revealed on Wednesday their new arrival was named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. Following allegations of racism over the tweet, Baker deleted the post on Wednesday. “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,” he said. “Soon as those good enough to point out it’s possible connotations got in touch, down it came. And that’s it.” Baker, 61, repeated his apology on Wednesday evening, saying the post was intended to poke fun at the royal family. “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,” he said on Twitter. “Royal watching not my forte. Also, guessing it was my turn in the barrel.” After the BBC sacked him, Baker attacked the corporation for its handling of the decision, which he called “a masterclass of pompous faux-gravity”. He tweeted: “Took a tone that said I actually meant that ridiculous tweet and the BBC must uphold blah blah blah. Literally threw me under the bus. Could hear the suits knees knocking.” In an LBC interview after he was fired, Baker told James O’Brien: “It was put up there as a joke about class. It was supposed to be preposterous about toffs leaving. The idea that there was any racial basis for it … it came out of my own ignorance. “I curdled that I thought anyone could have thought that was the intent behind that photo.” Many public figures felt the BBC had made the right decision. Charlene White, an anchor at ITV News, said: “To claim ‘ignorance’, and give a half-hearted apology – again full of jokey ‘banter’ – despite people highlighting just how clearly offensive it is, is also unacceptable. That’s not the world we live in now. Those who live in privilege must be held to account.” The writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch tweeted: “Not only does Danny Baker post an image comparing a baby w African heritage to an ape, but he has the audacity to say problem is that those of us who point out how racist it is have ‘diseased minds’.” Baker, a prominent and popular voice on the BBC and elsewhere for decades, has had run-ins with the corporation before. In 1997, he was sacked from the same station after it was alleged he had incited threatening behaviour after a referee awarded a controversial penalty in an FA cup tie. In 2012, after his afternoon show on BBC London was axed, he said on Twitter: “BBC asked me not to say anything just yet about axing best show on British radio. Why? Because it’s embarrassing? Because they’ll look bad?” He later branded his bosses “pinheaded weasels” during an on-air rant during the programme. The DJ and comedy writer has been working intermittently for the BBC since the 1980s.<doc-sep>Broadcaster Danny Baker has been fired by the BBC after posting what he described as a "stupid unthinking gag" about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's biracial newborn son in which he used a picture of a monkey. On Wednesday the former 5 Live presenter had commented about the birth of the couple's son Archie, tweeting a photo of a man and woman holding hands with a chimpanzee dressed in clothes. He captioned the photo: "Royal baby leaves hospital." Baker subsequently deleted the tweet and apologised amid accusations of racism. He said he had been trying to make a joke "about Royals vs circus animals in posh clothes" and was "appalled" after realising the picture's "possible connotations". Just before announcing on Twitter that he had been fired, Baker had tweeted he "would have used same stupid pic" for other births. "It's a funny image. (Though not of course in that context. )," he continued. "Enormous mistake, for sure. Grotesque. Anyway, here's to ya Archie, Sorry mate." The 61-year-old apologised a number of times on Wednesday for the photo. "Sorry my gag pic of the little fella in the posh outfit has whipped some up," he wrote. "Never occurred to me because, well, mind not diseased. "Soon as those good enough to point out it's [sic] possible connotations got in touch, down it came. And that's it." He later wrote: "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. "Royal watching not my forte. Also, guessing it was my turn in the barrel." A BBC spokesperson said Baker's tweet was "a serious error of judgement" and "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," they added.<doc-sep>With sensitivity to perceived racism growing all the time, how important should intent be when society punishes someone for stepping over the line? On Wednesday, BBC radio presenter and comedian Danny Baker posted a black-and-white retro photo meme that showed a chimp accompanied by two well-dressed chaperones, with the caption “Royal baby leaves the hospital.” If we believe that this was a joke mocking the mixed-race origins of the newborn Archie, whose mother Meghan Markle is half black, then there is clear-cut cause for dismissal. Characterizing black people as simians has a long and inglorious history. Also on rt.com BBC radio host fired for tweeting photo of royal baby as a chimp, sparking racism scandal But what if we take the furious Baker at his word – that his “mind is not diseased” so he didn’t think of the “possible connotations” and deleted the tweet voluntarily as soon as he was alerted to them. While he can occasionally be opinionated, Danny Baker is a Corbyn-supporting lifelong left-winger whose 40-year broadcasting career – thousands of hours of unscripted radio chat – had previously managed to skirt a single notable racism controversy. Talking of Occam’s Razor, Baker himself wrote how inconceivable it is that he would voluntarily bring this upon himself for the sake of being edgy. Some would say that even genuine ignorance is no defense. That a man in the public eye should be more aware of the context and impact on others of what he posts online. But Baker’s backstory provides its own context, which the many who demanded his sacking simply chose to ignore because it makes condemning him easier. This is not to exonerate Baker, but simply to point out that punishing language is not the same as punishing murder: there is always a grey area where you are sentencing suspects for thoughtcrime, or perhaps even catching the innocent in the dragnet. Danny Baker (a man I’ve worked with in the past) knew full well what that tweet was suggesting. No comedian in their right mind could overlook that, that’s not how our brains work. We see a joke from every angle. He knew it was racist, thought it was funny and posted it anyway 👍🏾 — London Hughes (@TheLondonHughes) May 9, 2019 Are you kidding, Danny Baker has worked in media since the 1970s, most commonly as a football pundit. Of course he knows connecting that specific photo to this specific event is racist. He had to search for it. — Dr Fern Riddell (@FernRiddell) May 9, 2019 The scandal raises a related question: how tenuous does the link have to be between what is said or written and detectable racism? For example, could someone really be unaware that Archie is ¼ black? Perhaps only the truly careless. But what if he has a son of his own with a white woman, who is 1/8 black? Can ignorance be forgiven then? What racial proportion does someone have to be before it is acceptable to post chimp memes about them? Perhaps the easiest approach is to never make any potentially misinterpreted jokes at all – so no animal comparisons or other offensive material. It is one the BBC would approve of with their “zero tolerance” approach to Baker and their own impeccably “safe” content. But if it had taken this approach, would the corporation have ever commissioned, say Fawlty Towers, with its portrayal of bumbling and easily confused Manuel the Spanish waiter, who is not even played by a Spaniard. Should it even be showing repeats of this sitcom? More currently, what about the next time a storm of unflattering epithets – much more aggressive and personal than 'chimp' – is unleashed by one of its presenters or guests at Donald Trump? They likely won’t be fired. Does context enter back into it then? It’s OK to insult white people referring to the color of their skin, for example, but not black people. Maybe it’s OK to mock the powerful, but not the weak? Or is it the other way round, anyone is fair game, but not the royals? Or maybe Prince Philip is a joke, but Queen Elizabeth is not. Everyone but the perfect moral guardians would agree that the rules can be unfair, and false positives can strike even the most politically correct. Or should the offended party simply decide whether it finds something racist or sexist or transphobic, and then ensure that the culprit is disgraced? After all, people complained after Baker’s tweet, hence the reaction. But then aren’t we just giving more power to Twitter mobs and their own political biases? All this would make Danny Baker, or anyone else, think twice about telling that joke, sharing that meme or sending that tweet. Should we celebrate or be afraid? Should we all live like the BBC? By Igor Ogorodnev Igor Ogorodnev is a Russian-British journalist, who has worked at RT since 2007 as a correspondent, editor and writer.<doc-sep>
Danny Baker has admitted his tweet depicting the duke and duchess of Sussex's son as a monkey was "ridiculous, stupid and idiotic", but has insisted he is not racist. The radio presenter has been sacked after posting a black and white photo showing a well-dressed man and woman holding hands with a suited chimpanzee. Baker captioned it: "Royal baby leaves hospital." He later apologised, writing: "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," he wrote. Just got fired from @bbc5live. For the record - it was red sauce. Always. — Danny Baker (@prodnose) May 9, 2019 "Soon as those good enough to point out its possible connotations got in touch, down it came. And that's it." It was Baker himself who announced via his Twitter account the decision by the BBC. "Just got fired from @bbc5live. For the record - it was red sauce. Always," he said referring to a segment on his show. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player In full: 'It came from such a naive, silly thing' Speaking to Sky News, the broadcaster said: "I've seen these things happen to other people but you never think it's going to happen to you. "The unconscious and ridiculous tweet I did yesterday has started all this off." :: Listen to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker He insisted he was not some "slathering, secret racist, adding: "What I did was make a ridiculous, stupid and idiotic mistake." Image: Baker's angry reaction to the decision But despite admitting the BBC had no choice but to sack him - he said the corporation could have handled it better. He tweeted: "The call to fire me from @bbc5live was a masterclass of pompous faux-gravity. Took a tone that said I actually meant that ridiculous tweet and the BBC must uphold blah blah blah. Literally threw me under the bus. Could hear the suits knees knocking." A BBC spokesman said: "This was a serious error of judgement and 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." :: Listen to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker Following his original tweet, other users reacted with anger with @nick_BLM writing: "All those people defending #DannyBaker saying they can't see the connection between black people and sick racist monkey comments try being a black kid at school for a while! #RoyalBaby The 61-year-old later deleted the post and apologised again, saying the joke was intended to poke fun at the Royal family. "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. "Royal watching not my forte. Also, guessing it was my turn in the barrel." Harry and Meghan, whose mother is African American, revealed on Wednesday that their new arrival was named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.