BBC Radio Solent mid-morning DJ, Alex Dyke, who over the summer sparked outrage around the country with his comments about breastfeeding mothers, is back in the news again today.
Ofcom and the BBC Trust’s Editorial Standards Committee have both today (Monday) delivered their findings, following investigations into complaints about Alex Dyke’s 12th August programme.
Ofcom find Alex to be in breach
Ofcom say they’ve upheld 45 complaints from listeners about the broadcast, which included comments from the Isle of Wight DJ such as,
“I blame the Earth mothers, you know the ones I mean, the ones with the moustaches, the ones who work in libraries, the ones who wear hessian, the ones they’re always on Radio 4 on Women’s Hour, they are always pushing the boundaries and making us feel uncomfortable.”
The DJ also referred to men who supported women breastfeeding in public as, “wimps who are scared of their wives”.
Alex was temporarily suspended after social media was set alight by his comments.
Following the Ofcom investigation, the regulator found Alex to be in breach of rule 2.3, which covers harm and offence.
Further breaches
The BBC Trust’s very own Editorial Standards Committee also investigated the programme and found it to in breach of their own rules on harm and offence.
The investigation was sparked due to a referral by the BBC.
The Trust’s report said:
“Trustees considered that phone-in programmes were a valuable forum for connecting with audiences, they tapped in to the likely topics of conversation and allowed the BBC to engage with audiences. Trustees acknowledged that presenters had editorial freedom about the choice of subjects they discussed and considerable leeway to provoke opinion; for example, they could choose to use humour, exaggeration and play devil’s advocate. Trustees considered all these devices were well understood and accepted by audiences.
“However in this instance, they considered the comments stepped significantly beyond what would have been deemed acceptable by listeners. They noted in particular repeated derogatory stereotypical comments about the appearance of the kind of women who might breastfeed. Trustees also considered the treatment of one caller in particular was derogatory.”
What next?
OnTheWight asked the BBC what would happen following the outcome of the investigation.
A BBC spokesperson told us this evening,
“We take the Ofcom and BBC Trust findings very seriously indeed. Alex was told at the time in no uncertain terms that his comments were unacceptable, and he apologised for any offence caused on and off air.”
We guess that could be paraphrased as ‘not much’.
Source
Image: ilovememphis under CC BY 2.0
