Daley Thompson racism horror - should police be called in?

[Mike]

London 2012: Daley Thompson accused of racism after Irish gag on One Show

Telegraph

Daley Thompson has found himself at the centre of a race row - after he made an anti-Irish joke on live television.

Daley Thompson found himself at the centre of a race row after quipping that the torchbearer who spelled Olympic wrong on a tattoo must have been

Irish Photo: ALAMY11:40AM BST 22 Jul 2012

The double Olympic champion, who has been tipped to light the Olympic torch during the opending ceremony on Friday, was criticised by viewers of The One Show.

BBC bosses were forced to apologise after a string of complaints.

Thompson made the gaffe during last Thursday's show when he was shown a photo of a torch bearer with 'Oylmpic torch bearer' tattooed on her arm.

The Decathlon gold-medalist quipped that the tattooer must have been Irish.

He was quickly corrected by presenter Matt Baker that the tattoo had been done in the USA and the presenter apologised to viewers straight away and then again at the end of the show.

The BBC said: "We've received complaints from some viewers unhappy with a comment made by Daley Thompson during The One Show on Thursday 19 July 2012. "

At the beginning of the show Matt & Alex introduced Daley Thompson to the show and discussed the Olympic Torch, showing a picture of an unfortunate spelling mistake on a torchbearer's tattoo.

Thompson omments about this were clearly meant as a joke but we apologise if any offence was caused, it certainly wasn't our intention. Matt corrected Daley straight away and Alex offered an on-air apology at the end of the show."

And one complainant was sent the following letter: "Thanks for contacting us regarding 'The One Show' broadcast on BBC One on 19 July.

"We understand you felt a comment made by Daley Thompson regarding Irish people was extremely offensive.

"We have received complaints from some viewers unhappy with a comment made by Daley Thompson, and we made the Executive Producer of the show aware of these concerns.

"At the beginning of the show Matt & Alex introduced Daley Thompson to the show and discussed the Olympic Torch, showing a picture of an unfortunate spelling mistake on a torchbearer's tattoo.

"Thompson comments about this were clearly meant as a joke but we apologise if any offence was caused; it certainly wasn't our intention. Matt corrected Daley straight away and Alex offered an on-air apology at the end of the show.

"Please be assured we do note your strength of feeling on this, and therefore your complaint has been registered on our audience log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that's made available to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, channel controllers and other senior managers.

"The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content.

"Thanks again for taking the time to contact us."

One blogger wrote on a message board: "Anyone watch him on the One Show cracking anti-Irish jokes. Charming man. Always thought he was a bit of a k***, now confirmed.

Another wrote: "His hopes of lighting the flame may have just disappeared with that remark!"

[Mike]

Let's hope this is fully investigated begorrah.

[Endangered]

Yes, the police SHOULD be called.

To arrest all the white people criticizing Daley. Everyone knows you cannot possibly be racist if you're black.

[Thomas Atkins]

The police can still be called, and indeed should be called.
Whatsmore had this been a white man making such a gaffe he would never be seen again after about a month of public persecution. But with Thompson being of dubious and low pedigree he will receive no such retribution, and might still be allowed to light the f****** thing. I've had enough of the olympics already. If it is not him it will be some other "delightful" non-white gun toting talent laden rap artist "genius."

[Seymour Stilch]

Looks like the Olympics are going the way of British football; all to do with racism and little to do with sport.

I'm happy people made complaints because this is one of the ways to bring the system down. We must use their own weapons against them to overwhelm it.

[Road_Hog]

Ron Atkinson never got the opportunity to apologise on screen and put it all behind him. As I've said before, it's all PC gobe wrong and over the top, but if we're going to use it, then it has to be used on everyone.

[BratfudSteve]

Did you hear about the Irish Frankenstein?

He played with his nuts and his head fell off.

[medrussia]

Did you hear about the Irish Frankenstein?

He played with his nuts and his head fell off.

Thats funny, you need to work on it though, Frankenstein was the prof, it was the poor old creature that played with his nuts

[Road_Hog]

Thats funny, you need to work on it though, Frankenstein was the prof, it was the poor old creature that played with his nuts

Well, if you're going to be a pedant about it, it was only a novel, so he wasn't really a prof anyway, it's just made up.

[ron]

Thats funny, you need to work on it though, Frankenstein was the prof, it was the poor old creature that played with his nuts

Good attempt at humour destroying pedantry but he was a doctor not a professor.