The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Lord Sugar very sorry after ‘joke’ tweet backfires
Business mogul compares Senegal team to beach vendors in Spain
Lord Sugar has said he is “very sorry” for his tweet about the Senegal football team, in which he compared the World Cup squad to beach vendors in Marbella.
The Apprentice boss had initially tweeted a picture of the sports team, which had been edited to include a picture of handbags and sunglasses laid out on sheets.
Lord Sugar wrote: “I recognise some of these guys from the beach in Marbella. Multi tasking resourceful chaps.”
After being criticised for the post, he defended it, writing that he thought it was “funny” and that people had misinterpreted it.
The business mogul had tweeted: “Just been reading the reaction to my funny tweet about the guy on the beach in Marbella. Seems it has been interpreted in the wrong way as offensive by a few people. Frankly I cant see that I think it’s funny. But I will pull it down if you insist.”
Lord Sugar had also tweeted responses to people who had criticised it, writing to one: “I cant see what I have to apologise for... you are OTT... it’s a bloody joke.”
However, a short while later, he deleted all of his messages in which he defended the post and apologised.
He tweeted: “I misjudged my earlier tweet. It was in no way intended to cause offence, and clearly my attempt at humour has backfired. I have deleted the tweet and am very sorry.”
The BBC, which airs Lord Sugar’s reality series The Apprentice, issued a response following the apology.
In a tweet via the BBC’s press office, it wrote: “Lord Sugar has acknowledged this was a seriously misjudged tweet, and he’s in no doubt about our view on this. He has apologised unreservedly.”
His post came as the BBC published a landmark report on career progression for its employees of black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Asked about Lord Sugar’s tweet, a senior Labour source said: “It’s quite clearly racially offensive and should be investigated by the relevant parliamentary authorities.”
Lord Sugar was made a Labour peer by Gordon Brown in 2009, but quit the party six years later and now sits as a crossbencher.
Yet again we today report on a story that all too amply reflects the perils of unguarded social media use. Lord Sugar is the latest to come a cropper after making what he no doubt initially thought was an amusing observation regarding Senegal’s football team.
The trouble is, having “initially” thought it was funny, he – presumably almost instantaneously – chose to share his aside with the world through the medium of the social media platform Twitter.
Had he stopped to think for a few moments he would surely have realised just how inappropriate his comment was. Yet social media does not cater for such reflection. It relies upon instant communication. There is no time for careful consideration.
And it is worth remembering that even a post sent out with literally a moment’s thought, can – within seconds – reach a global audience.
Lord Sugar found that out yesterday as, within minutes of his original tweet, he received a barrage of criticism.
Eventually the BBC intervened, saying the star of The Apprentice TV show was guilty of a “serious misjudgment”.
Undoubtedly it is a problem peculiar to the modern world and the internet generation, but there are lessons for us all to learn.
Never has the saying “act in haste, repent at leisure” been more apt.