Letter: We’re all entitled to opinions
Wednesday 9th February 2011, 6:00AM GMT.
Letter: You do sometimes have to wonder if we in the UK have lost our grip on reality and our ability to put things into perspective.
The Andy Gray fiasco is just a little a storm in a tea cup blown out of all proportion resulting in two guys being sacked from their job for daring to have an opinion on a female assistant.
This opinion was being expressed by two men off air, an opinion they are entitled to have and entitled to express between whoever they see fit.
I would imagine that this lady hears far worse while performing her job every week.
The most worrying part is these comments were made in private, they were then made public. Our media did the usual hatchet job, asked the opinion of the odd de-ranged feminist or PC idiot and two guys get the sack.
Where will this all end? What would we hear if we decided to bug our police officers’ canteen, school staff rooms, the royal house hold etc and then made the private conversations public? More than likely we would hear the odd sexist, racist and a lot more unpleasant remarks, much of it done in banter because all people, no matter what they do or who they are, will have opinions we may not agree with.
Andrew Finch
Shrewsbury
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Call me cynical but I imagine the whole “controversy” was whipped up by Sky themselves. Andy Gray is currently suing News of the World over phone tapping allegations. The number one rule of business is not to sue your employer & expect to keep your job. The Murdoch empire wanted to get rid of him cheaply, hence the release of the tapes and the media frenzy that followed.
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I agree with Sarah … an inside hatchet job … a learning curve for both presenters’ …
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As you wish… you’re cynical. But you could be right.
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This was a continuation of unnacceptable behaviour from a person in the public eye not a one off incident.
If people making unpleasant remarks consider it banter then they need to grow up and find out it is not remotely amusing.
If anyone were to make hurtful, racist, sexist or jokes about disabled people in my home I would tell them it was ignorant.
It is usually people with a chip on their shoulder that resort to this sort of pathetic attempt at humour or comment anyway.
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Men saying that women don’t understand the offside rule is as common as women saying men can’t multi-task. To most people of either sex its completely inoffensive and doesn’t even begin to approach what many would consider sexism, so stop being so overly sensitive.
I agree with Sarah above, News Corp were looking for any excuse to get rid of him and he handed this to them on a plate.
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The myth about this as put forward by Mr Finch is that the comments were made in private. They were not, they were made in the work environment. The comments were of a nature wholly at odds with their role and that, combined with a previous history of similar unpleasantries, is why both are no longer in that job. I’m all for banter, but if what I perceive to be harmless banter at work causes offence to colleagues I can fully expect repercussions.
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An excellent letter that tells it like it is…..and it wasn’t intercepted by the PC police!
People having a laugh is as old as mankind and what some find amusing, other will find offensive.
Back in the day it was the Englishman, Scotsman and Irishman jokes…..I’m sure if you looked hard enough, or offered enough cash, fame or airtime, you’d get someone to say they were outraged by them.
The PC brigade need to get back in their box and accept that humans are individual and have individual opinions and ideas (radical I know) and stop turning everything into a political statement.
Yes the presenters were daft to say the comments when they could be overheard/recorded but as commented above, who then made them public to get their quick fix of self importance?
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