Live 8 was a very important day – mainly for fans of watching old men play boring songs in a park. It wanted to make poverty history, but it ended up making children learn to swear, too.
Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has criticised the BBC for its Live 8 coverage – not because it stupidly decided to show the dull-as-bricks set by The Stereophonics, but because all of Live 8 was full of swearing so intense that literally 350 people in the country got the arseholes about it.
When people think about Live 8 in the future, chances are they won’t
think of the raised awareness of global poverty, or Pink Floyd putting
their epic differences aside to play some songs together. No. Instead,
chances are most people will remember Snoop Dogg (CDs) chanting the word
"Motherfucker," over and over again on worldwide TV on a Saturday
lunchtime. That or Madonna saying "Are you fucking ready, London?" Or
whatever it was that the git from Razorlight said.
In hindsight, it was probably a bit dumb for the BBC to not use a
time delay in anticipation of possible Live 8 swearing, and it was this mistake that
caused 350 people to complain about all the language. But the BBC’s excuse is
fantastic – apparently the BBC and some Live 8 organisers were having a
big fight during Snoop Dogg’s set, and didn’t hear all the swearing:
"[a] confrontation between the organisers and
senior editorial figures from the BBC… meant that the two key BBC
editorial personnel missed much of the performance by Snoop Dogg and
were unable to set the apology procedure in motion."
Genius.
And then, when the BBC staff realised that they’d missed Snoop Dogg
calling everyone in the world a motherfucker, they decided that they’d
missed their chance, and that an apology would actually make things
worse:
"It was felt that the moment for a full apology
had passed, and that to have returned to the issue would have merely
drawn further attention to the original offence."
Genius. As for Ofcom, it ruled that:
"We consider the BBC should have
anticipated an audience for this event, which would include a
significant number of children, and we therefore consider that the
broadcast of this material was inappropriate, compounded by the lack of
any apology."
But what about Snoop Dogg? After all, he’s part of the reason that
the BBC got in so much trouble in the first place. What’s his excuse?
Well, according to his record company, all the swearing was a case of
Snoop:
"going into gig mode and forgetting the time of the day."
Genius.
Read more:
Beeb rapped over swearing – This Is London
[story by Stuart Heritage]