Sacked radio host faces the music over royal baby chimp tweet
● DJ blasts ‘pompous’ BBC as he is sacked over chimpanzee post
Broadcaster and DJ Danny Baker speaks to reporters outside his London home after he was fired by the BBC for tweeting a ‘joke’ about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new baby son Archie using a picture of a monkey. The BBC said the presenter’s actions showed a ‘serious error of judgment’.
Broadcast er Danny Baker insisted he was no “downbeat racist wretch” after he was sacked for tweeting a joke about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son featuring a picture of a chimpanzee.
The DJ was axed from BBC Radio 5 Live for what his bosses said was a “serious error of judgment”.
Baker ,61, who has been sacked from the station before, blasted his bosses for their handling of the controversy and said he was trying to make a point about class.
The DJ had tweeted a black and white image showing a well-dressed man and woman holding hands with a suited chimpanzee, which he captioned: “Royal baby leaves hospital”.
The tweet came on the same day Harry and Meghan, whose mother is African American, posed with their new arrival, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-windsor.
Following a backlash and accusations of racism, he deleted the post and apologised.
Baker claimed ignorance saying: “My go-to photo when any posh people have a baby is this absurd chimpanzee in a top hat leaving the hospital”.
And he added: “I didn’t know which of our royal princesses had given birth.”
Speaking to journalists outside his London home, he said it was “weasely for the BBC to chuck us under the bus”. He revealed that he ended his “lecture” from his bosses “with two very old fashioned Anglo-Saxon words”.
Baker, also known as a scriptwriter for his friend Chris Evans, added: “I don’t think they would have done it to some university-type people who’ve been at Radio 4 for a long time.”
He said the accusations were “absurd, grotesque”, adding: “You’d have to have a diseased mind (to have done it).”
Wearing a Fez, Baker told reporters outside his home: “You would have thought I’d had a shave and put some - thing else on. I look like the downbeat racist wretch they all think I am.”
But he said of his sacking: “It’s not as if I’d lost the breakfast show at Virgin Radio or something.”
Baker alerted fans to his sac king when he tweeted “just got fired from BBC 5 Live” before the BBC had made a statement.
“The call to fire me from @bbc5live was a masterclass of pompous faux-gravity,” he wrote.
“Took at one that said I actually meant that ridiculous tweet and the BBC must uphold blah blah blah. Literally threw me under the bus. Could heart he suits knees knocking.”
In an email to staff on Thursday morning, 5 Live controller Jonathan Wall wrote: “I have just spoken to Danny Baker and let him know that he will no longer be presenting his weekly show with us.
“Danny made a serious error of judgment on social media last night and it goes against the values we live and breathe on this radio station.
“Danny has been a brilliant broadcaster for us and I want to thank him for his work with us on Saturday mornings over the last few years.”
Baker is in the midst of his Good Time Charlie’s Back live tour, and he is still expected to perform for audiences throughout May and June.
“I don’t think they would have done it to some university-type people who’ve been at Radio 4”
DANNY BAKER
Danny Baker yesterday insisted he was not a “downbeat racist wretch” after his sacking from BBC Radio 5 Live for tweeting a picture of a couple holding hands with a chimpanzee in a top hat, which he captioned: “Royal baby leaves hospital.”
While there’s no particular reason not to believe him, he still had to be sacked, given the grandmother of the new royal baby in question is African American and racists’ use of idiotic animal-based insults.
Not to do so would send a signal that those in the public eye can get
away with this kind of behaviour, encouraging dog-whistle messages from actual racists with the danger this could eventually lead to open racism. It is important to maintain a strong line so such views remain in the shadows where they belong.
Baker, who said the picture was his “go-to photo when any posh people have a baby”, complained he had been thrown under the bus by the BBC in a “masterclass of pompous faux-gravity”.
When he calms down, he may realise it was his error and that, sometimes, we can all pay a price for a moment of stupidity.