Comedian hits out at BBC's 'cowardly rebuke'
Comedian Frankie Boyle has written an open letter slamming the BBC governing body’s “cowardly rebuke” of his jokes about Palestine.
He described the BBC as a “great institution” which had become “cravenly afraid of giving offence”.
The BBC Trust’s editorial standards committee (ESC) apologised earlier this week over comments made by Boyle two years ago, comparing Palestine with a cake being “punched to pieces by a very angry Jew”.
In his letter, the former Mock The Week star said he had been moved to tears after watching a documentary about life in Palestine and had promised himself he would do something.
He said that in practice the BBC wishes “to deliver the flavour of political comedy with none of the content”.
Boyle highlighted the BBC2 quiz show The Bubble, which mixes fake news items with genuine events, leaving celebrity contestants to guess which one is real.
He said: “It looked exactly like a show where funny people sat around and did jokes about the news, except the thrust of the format was that nobody had read the papers.
“I can only imagine how the head of the BBC Trust must have looked watching that, grinning like Gordon Brown having his prostate examined.”
Boyle also pointed to the BBC’s decision not to air a charity appeal for aid to Gaza, which came in for fierce criticism last year.
He said: “It’s tragic for such a great institution but it is now cravenly afraid of giving offence and vulnerable to any kind of well-drilled lobbying.”
Boyle made the remark on Radio 4 comedy sketch show Political Animal, broadcast in June 2008.
He said: “I’ve been studying Israeli Army martial arts. I now know 16 ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back.
“People think that the Middle East is very complex but I have an analogy that sums it up quite well.
“If you imagine that Palestine is a big cake, well... that cake is being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew.”
A complainant wrote to the BBC executive, alleging the comments were “anti-Semitic”.
Dissatisfied with the response, the complainant went to the editorial complaints unit (ECU), the next stage of the BBC’s complaints process.
The ECU wrote back in December 2008 upholding the complaint, saying the use of the word Jew in the context was “inappropriate and offensive”.
The ESC, which acts as a final arbiter of appeals if complainants are unhappy with the response from BBC management, endorsed the previous finding by the ECU.
It said it was “very sorry that the breach of editorial standards had occurred in this case” but no further action was needed.
The committee noted that since the programme aired the BBC’s Audio & Music division had reformed compliance procedures.
It also pointed out that since incidents like the Sachsgate scandal involving Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, a significant amount of work had been carried out in Audio & Music, showing “the BBC’s willingness to learn from such mistakes”.
The committee was satisfied “that the breach, while serious, did not require an apology or correction from the BBC online or on air”.
Boyle described the trust’s ruling as “essentially a note from their line managers. It says that if you imagine that a state busily going about the destruction of an entire people is fair game, you are mistaken. Israel is out of bounds.”
The BBC Trust declined to comment.
An independent review carried out by Tim Suter, formerly of Ofcom and ex-chief executive of the Radio Authority, published in March found nothing to suggest that increased attention to compliance has had an adverse effect on the shows which are commissioned.
“There is no evidence that programmes which ought to be made are not being made,” the report concluded.
Obviously, it feels strange to be on the moral high ground but I feel a response is required to the BBC Trust’s cowardly rebuke of my jokes about Palestine.
As always, I heard nothing from the BBC but read in a newspaper that editorial procedures would be tightened further to stop jokes with anything at all to say getting past the censors.
In case you missed it, the jokes in question are:
“I’ve been studying Israeli Army Martial Arts. I now know 16 ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back.
“People think that the Middle East is very complex but I have an analogy that sums it up quite well.
“If you imagine that Palestine is a big cake, well... that cake is being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew.”
I think the problem here is that the show’s producers will have thought that Israel, an aggressive, terrorist state with a nuclear arsenal was an appropriate target for satire.
The trust’s ruling is essentially a note from their line managers.
It says that if you imagine that a state busily going about the destruction of an entire people is fair game, you are mistaken. Israel is out of bounds.
The BBC refused to broadcast a humanitarian appeal in 2009 to help residents of Gaza rebuild their homes.
It’s tragic for such a great institution but it is now cravenly afraid of giving offence and vulnerable to any kind of well drilled lobbying.
I told the jokes on a Radio 4 show called Political Animal. That title seems to promise provocative comedy with a point of view.
In practice the BBC wish to deliver the flavour of political comedy with none of the content.
The most recent offering I saw was BBC2’s The Bubble.
It looked exactly like a show where funny people sat around and did jokes about the news. Except the thrust of the format was that nobody had read the papers.
I can only imagine how the head of the BBC Trust must have looked watching that, grinning like Gordon Brown having his prostate examined.
The situation in Palestine seems to be, in essence, apartheid.
I grew up with the anti apartheid thing being a huge focus of debate.
It really seemed to matter to everybody that other human beings were being treated in that way.
We didn’t just talk about it, we did things, I remember boycotts and marches and demos all being held because we couldn’t bear that people were being treated like that.
A few years ago I watched a documentary about life in Palestine.
There’s a section where a UN dignitary of some kind comes to do a photo opportunity outside a new hospital.
The staff know that it communicates nothing of the real desperation of their position, so they trick her into a side ward on her way out.
She ends up in a room with a child who the doctors explain is in a critical condition because they don’t have the supplies to keep treating him.
She flounders, awkwardly caught in the bleak reality of the room, mouthing platitudes over a dying boy.
The filmmaker asks one of the doctors what they think the stunt will have achieved.
He is suddenly angry, perhaps having just felt at first hand something he knew in the abstract. The indifference of the world.
“She will do nothing,” he says to the filmmaker. Then he looks into the camera and says: “Neither will you”.
I cried at that and promised myself that I would do something. Other than write a few stupid jokes I have not done anything. Neither have you.
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