The BBC has come under fire for giving airtime to ‘Marxist’ comedians who joked about ‘killing whiteness’ after the new Director-General vowed to take a sledgehammer to Left-wing comedy bias at the Corporation.
Controversial statements about racism and ‘white power’ were made by comic Sophie Duker in an episode of the new series of Frankie Boyle’s irreverent BBC2 panel show New World Order, available on BBC iPlayer.
In a segment where the panelists discuss if the Black Lives Matter movement ‘glosses over the complexities of a world where we all need to come together and kill whitey’, Boyle played a clip of black author James Baldwin talking about ‘black power’ in an interview on the Dick Cavett Show in the 1970s.
Responding to the clip, Duker – who has appeared on Eight Out Of Ten Cats- asserted that ‘white power’ and ‘black power’ are ‘capitalist myths’ that need to be dispelled, before calling ‘whiteness’ a ‘capitalist structure’.
She then claimed that ‘white power is Trump Tower’ – a nod to Left-wing allegations that the US President is a racist – and jokes about ‘killing whitey’.
‘White power is Trump Tower’, Duker said, ‘but when we say we want to kill whitey, we don’t really mean we want to kill whitey’.
She then quips to the panelists ‘we do’ – to roars of laughter in the studio.
Controversial statements about racism and ‘white power’ were made by comic Sophie Duker in an episode of the new series of Frankie Boyle’s panel show New World Order
Throughout her monologue, Duker’s co-panelists – Frankie Boyle, Sara Pascoe and Jamali Maddix – can be seen nodding and heard humming in agreement with the comedian
The segment fueled anger from a growing chorus of licence-fee payers who question why the BBC is ‘broadcasting ‘comedy’ where they ‘joke’ about killing an entire race of people’
Duker continued: ‘But when people react to people saying white privilege – whiteness is a capitalist structure, it benefits itself.
‘It hurts white people, it hurts non-black people, it hurts black people.
‘But still this kind of fear of a black alternative, and it’s these sort of rhetorics battling against each other, these extreme capitalist rhetorics of supremacy.’
Throughout her monologue, Duker’s co-panelists – Sara Pascoe and Jamali Maddix – can be seen nodding and heard humming in agreement with the comedian.
The segment has fueled further anger from a growing chorus of disgruntled licence-fee payers on Twitter who question why the BBC is ‘broadcasting ‘comedy’ where they ‘joke’ about killing an entire race of people’.
TalkRadio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer led the charges today, thundering: #This is horrible. It’s not just unfunny, it’s incoherent nonsensical Marxist gobbledegook.
‘The white contributors nodding along supportively as this woman jokes about killing people who look like them is just plain sick.’
Another social media user tweeted: ‘Whiteness hurts black people’??? Really? Doesn’t sound like a joke to me. Imagine Frankie Boyle saying ‘Blackness hurts white people!”
One commented: ‘Shouldn’t Ofcom be monitoring and taking action against this kind of incitement to violence masquerading as comedy?’
It comes after Tim Davie, the BBC’s new Director-General, vowed to tackle the problem of ‘Left-wing comedy bias’ at the Corporation.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Mr Davie wanted a radical overhaul of the broadcaster’s comedy output in the coming months, over fears it is seen as is seen as ‘too one-sided’.
Shows such as BBC Two’s satirical comedy The Mash Report and The Now Show on Radio 4 and Have I Got News For You have previously been criticised.
A BBC spokesman told MailOnline: ‘Frankie Boyle’s New World Order was shown after 10pm and its content is within audience expectations for a post-watershed, topical, satirical programme from a comedian whose style and tone are well-established.’
Yesterday the BBC came under attack after it published accounts showing that staff pay had soared 3.5 per cent to £1.5billion this year – while the Corporation pushes ahead with its plans to strip a million over-75s of their free TV licences.
Accounts published at noon showed that Zoe Ball is now the BBC’s highest earner after pocketing a £1million pay rise – knocking Gary Lineker off the top spot.
The Match of the Day star, 59, is understood to have signed a new five-year contract – and a nearly 25 per cent pay cut from £1.75million down to £1.35million.
Responding to the news, Lineker sarcastically tweeted: ‘Oh dear. Thoughts are with the haters at this difficult time.’
Radio 2 presenter Ball, 49, is now earning £1.36million despite losing nearly a million listeners after the corporation pledged to tackle the gender pay gap.
They have been trying to level up the pay of male and female stars to repair damage to the corporation’s reputation and reduce discord among staff.
Controversial statements about racism and ‘white power’ were made by comic Sophie Duker in an episode of the new series of Frankie Boyle’s panel show New World Order
It comes after Tim Davie, the BBC’s new Director-General, vowed to tackle the problem of ‘Left-wing comedy bias’ at the Corporation (pictured arriving at BBC Scotland in Glasgow)
Equality issues led to the BBC handing out a settlement to former China editor Carrie Gracie in 2018 and then earlier this year losing an equal pay tribunal case to Samira Ahmed.
Critics have blasted its decision to reward its staff with a total 3.5 per cent salary increase even after it announced plans to slim down its operations following the pandemic.
In July, the BBC announced a huge shake-up of regional TV news and local radio in England which will lead to 450 job cuts.
Changes will see one instead of two presenters fronting 6.30pm regional TV news bulletins as the corporation looks to make £25million in savings.
Inside Out, the regional current affairs magazine show made in 11 different regions, will be axed and replaced with a new investigative journalism programme from six hubs.
A ‘simplified schedule’ introduced on local radio during the pandemic, with single instead of double presenters and a reduction in the number of shows, will become permanent.
Other detractors have pointed to the BBC’s shocking push to strip 1.5 million pensioners of their free TV licences as the BBC seeks to capture younger audiences in its war with Netflix.
BBC director-general Tim Davie defended Ball’s huge pay rise after she shed nearly a million listeners in the first year in her new role, saying it was a ‘punchy’ market.
‘Zoe is absolutely a broadcaster at the top of her game. She’s delivering over eight million listeners,’ he boasted. ‘I think we’re getting incredible value.’
Asked about the likes of Lineker still earning more than £1million, Mr Davie said he would expect ‘people to come to the BBC at a significant discount to what they’d get in the open market’. But he added: ‘We will invest in very limited situations in particular markets to ensure we have got the best talent.’
Furious Twitter accounts lashed out at the BBC, with one commenting: ‘There is no possible way that anyone can justify the extortionate salaries at the BBC.
‘This simply can’t go on. Using the license fee as a way of paying for some of the BBC dinosaurs should be a criminal offence’.
Responding to Lineker’s pay rise, one tweeted: ‘How the hell can they justify giving Lineker such an obscene salary?’ Another commented: ‘Mr Lineker, do you not feel any sense of guilty at receiving such an obscene amount of money?’
BBC Rich list 2020 top ten
1. BBC Radio 2 breakfast show DJ Zoe Ball is on £1.36 million.
2. Match of the Day host Gary Lineker is on £1.35 million.
3. Graham Norton takes about £725,000 for his Radio 2 show and some TV work, but not his chat show.
4. Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright is on about £475,000.
5. Newsreader and election night presenter Huw Edwards is on more than £465,000.
6. Fiona Bruce takes home over £450,000 for her work on Question Time.
7. BBC Radio London’s Vanessa Feltz is on about £405,000.
8. Desert Island Discs host Lauren Laverne is on more than £395,000.
9. Broadcaster Stephen Nolan is on more than £390,000 for his radio work, including 5 Live.
10. Match Of The Day’s Alan Shearer is on the same figure of £390,000 a year.
‘You smug bar steward,’ one account tweeted: ‘That’s the elderly you’re insulting whilst gloating. You get paid your inflated salary directly from a ridiculous tax.
‘If the BBC had to pay its own way, you’d be singing a different song’. Another commented: ‘How can the BBC justify these disgusting salaries?’
The BBC’s 268-page report published at noon today is full of congratulatory self-praise, with Mr Davie claiming: ‘The past few months have served as a powerful reminder of just how much the BBC matters to all of us, and our families.
‘The programmes and services we provide for audiences have never been more relevant, important or necessary. I am proud of how quickly and effectively the BBC rallied around the needs of the nation when the coronavirus crisis struck.
‘Our teams not only kept services up and running at a uniquely testing time, they also showed remarkable dedication, flexibility and resourcefulness in reshaping them around the most urgent requirements of our audiences’.
It dedicates a full 38 pages to its so-called Equality Index Report, which lists the numbers of people who tick quotas – including equal numbers of men and women, more equal numbers of straight and homosexual people, racial ethnicities and even religious denominations.
However, the BBC also shows that bullying and harassment claims in the workplace have gone up since last year, with 92 formal cases – 10 of which are sexual harassment cases – this year compared to 86 formal cases in 2019.
The report also reveals that the BBC is losing young viewers, audiences in the North and Midlands as well as the trust of the BAME community, with one fifth of under-16s not using any BBC content, while those aged 16-34 using YouTube as their main viewing outlet.
The time spent watching the BBC fell in the North (by 12 minutes a week) and the Midlands (13 minutes) last year.
‘Netflix is often seen to be market leader by younger audience members,’ the BBC’s annual report admitted.
It comes as Ball overtakes Lineker as the BBC’s biggest-earning star. The Match of the Day star has been the firm’s highest-paid firm since 2018 – when Chris Evans, the previous spot-holder, left.
Earlier this month Ball splashed out an estimated £1.5million on a country mansion built by a Russian aristocrat.
The six-bedroom property, which was created by Baron Vladimir de Wolff in the 1920s, has a swimming pool, tennis court and acres of gardens.
Pay packets made through BBC Studios, the broadcaster’s commercial arm and responsible for the likes of Strictly Come Dancing, Antiques Roadshow and Doctor Who, are not disclosed in the new accounts.
Graham Norton takes about £725,000 for his Radio 2 show and some TV work, but not his chat show. Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright is on about £475,000.
Newsreader and election night presenter Huw Edwards is on more than £465,000. Fiona Bruce takes home over £450,000 for her work on Question Time.
BBC Radio London’s Vanessa Feltz is on about £405,000. Desert Island Discs host Lauren Laverne makes the top 10 for the first time, with more than £395,000.
Broadcaster Stephen Nolan is on over £390,000 for his radio work, including 5 Live. Match Of The Day’s Alan Shearer is on the same figure.
Laverne took over from Kirsty Young on the Radio 4 programme, while Bruce followed in the footsteps of David Dimbleby.
The BBC previously opposed the publication of salaries as a ‘poacher’s charter’, but then-boss Lord Hall later said he welcomed the ‘transparency’.
The salaries are being published amid questions about how the BBC will be funded in future.
The licence fee model is guaranteed until December 31 2027, the end of the current charter.
Decriminalisation of licence fee evasion could also be on the cards – but the BBC has warned that switching to a civil system would cost the broadcaster more than £200 million a year.
The BBC began means-testing the free TV licence for over-75s in August, having previously delayed its introduction because of the pandemic.
It came as it emerged last night that the BBC had given pay rises to more than 700 female employees since the start of its equal pay scandal.
A Freedom of Information request revealed that at least 84 women were given pay increases through formal processes between July 2017 and March 2020. During the same period, 608 women received a pay revision or increase through an informal pay enquiry.
The pay revelations are set to reignite fury over the BBC’s decision to strip over-75s of their free TV licences. Responding to the publication of BBC star salaries, John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘BBC salary surges for loaded luvvies fly in the face of ratepayers facing economic ruin.
‘These bumper Beeb pay packets are picked from the pockets of pensioners and poor taxpayers, who are fed up of forking out for the licence fee under pain of imprisonment.
‘It’s high time we axed the TV tax, introduced a subscription service and stopped taxpayers’ money going to these media millionaires.’
The BBC has insisted it cannot afford the concession for all pensioners and says only around 900,000 who receive Pension Credit would continue to get it.