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THE BROADCASTING AUTHORITY has upheld a complaint made about the FM104 Phoneshow with Chris Barry, after a caller made a number of offensive comments about children with special needs.
The complaint was made by a Theresa Finn in July this year and referred to a discussion about the exclusion of special needs children from summer camps.
It was sparked by a Facebook status by a parent on the topic and there were a number of calls from other parents in a similar position or people who sympathised.
However, one caller questioned what would happen if a child at a camp “spazzes out”.
Other comments included:
They don’t have a head of their own…they don’t have a mind of their own.
They are kinda…stupid.
At the end of the day, you can’t put a mongo into a camp.
You can’t have a cabbage in a camp.
A cabbage won’t punch the head off of me, no mongo will punch the head off of me.
The woman who made the complaint said she was “appalled and disgusted” at what she considered to be “vile abuse” that was allowed to be broadcast.
She said she had personal experience dealing with children with autism and she did not expect to hear “abusive, hateful comments towards the most vulnerable children in our society”.
‘Idiotic’
In its response FM104 said, as with any topic, some listeners to the programme will be “ignorant” in respect of it. The broadcaster also stated the caller was challenged by both the presenter and other callers, and told his views were “idiotic”, “insulting” and “ignorant”.
FM104 said the man was eventually cut off.
The broadcaster states that the show contains views and opinions that not everyone agrees with, but these views are always challenged on-air, as was the case on this night.
FM104 also denied ”hyping anyone up” before going on-air to be disrespectful towards children with special needs and claimed it does not have the time or resources to pre-interview every caller.
In its decision, the BAI noted the programme is broadcast after the watershed, but said there are certain limits in respect of acceptable content.
This includes a requirement on broadcasters to ensure that content is in line with general community standards, including standards related to public attitudes to language. Furthermore, content must represent persons and groups in society appropriately and in a justified manner and should not prejudice human dignity.
Though it acknowledged that the callers comments had been challenged, the authority said it was evident from early in his contribution that this man’s views were “highly offensive”.
The committee also noted that he was permitted to make the above types of remarks for a considerable period of time before his comments were strongly challenged by the presenter. There was also no evidence from the broadcaster that the presenter or the programme makers ended the call.
In view of these factors, the authority determined the broadcaster would be issued with a compliance notice and will be monitored by the BAI.
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The lowest common denominator of society listen to and comment on that show. It’s a skangers forum with no value whatsoever.
It’s well reported that FM104 have employees call in and bait other callers to bring out the worst in people.
@David Mac Shite: I wonder if you used the term skangers on his show would someone complain?
Skangers arnt a vulnerable group they’re the predators and leeches never the victims
..and no I don’t mean working class people. I mean skangers. We all know the difference
@Mr Snuffleupagus: I wonder do online ‘news’ sites have employees comment and bait other commenters to bring out the worst in people.
Don’t they all. You can predict who’ll be on 4fm, 98fm and fm104 talk shows – you can count on one hand ‘new’ callers.
If you point this out you get “there’s a button on the side!”
The researchers on fm104 only let you on if you imply you’ll come out with stupidity. Seriously ring them yourself and try bring studies and statistics on they’ll hang up, bring a divisive attitude and you’ll be on in no time! Tabloid radio
Probably some one from FM104 for publicity . Sure aren’t we all talking about it now .
I’m with FM104 on this. People will say stupid things in these shows if the presenter and other callers challenged them I can’t see why Fam104 are responsible
This show is for trailer trash. It gives the uneducated dregs of society air time and makes Chris Barry feel like some sort of intellectual – Of course it’s all relative in relation to that.
@Barry Davidson: I think you’ve answered yourself, Barry. Because the presenter, i.e. an employee and the public representative of 104, allowed the comments to go unchallenged. Hence FM104′s responsibility.
It’s like complaining about a fight breaking out on Jerry Springer.
Its quite obvious that the caller to the show is pure ignorant of being someone that has ever had the privilege of interacting with a person who happened to be born through no fault of their with a special need or who happened to have an accident or illness of some kind that over night became disabled. I happen to be the mother of a child with special needs and know first hand the challenges of life a child or adult have to go through everyday, I am blessed and extremely privileged to help my child grow to the best he can ever be in his life with manners even though he is almost none verbal brought up to respect all. I can assure you that person on the radio is extremely challenged and not quite alright in the head, but one day he may face the challenges of a person with a special need maybe he might be introduced to a child, grandchild parent with dementia or maybe he might be the person that indeed needs the help through old age or some other karma, so people like him will have their day. He also sounds very uneducated and miserable in he own ignorance I do feel sorry for people like that as they miss out on so much in society when one can’t see through ignorance then one is truly blind.
The restrictions to public broadcasting are ridiculous in this country. Even idiots have free speech and if a private company wants to allow one of them to air their idiotic views so they can be challenged then they should be allowed to. How is censoring such conversions going to help educate anyone who holds such beliefs.
@Awkward Seal: I agree to a point. I’d like to see us adopt a first amendment approach.
@Awkward Seal: I think one of the main issues was not challenging the speaker and their outrageously ignorant remarks
Why do people think we have freedom of speech? That is an American thing which most of Europe doesn’t have. You can not incite hatred for a very good reason and the US has a problem with nut jobs and freedom of speech. Europe learned from having Nazis.
We should have freedom of speech. There are obvious limits on it but offence shouldn’t be one of them. I haven’t listened to the program (I’d rather pour superglue in my ears than listen to fm104) but I’m lead to believe that the ideas expressed were called stupid and offensive.
Did the person who made the complaint realise what show they were on? Was it their first time ever listening? If people can’t see that these shows are the Jeremy Kyle of the Irish radio waves, then they have other problems besides their indignation and horror. A bunch of skangers blowing off steam every night can hardly be taken seriously. If you don’t know the definition of Skanger, see
Oh the humanity!!
Or lack thereof
I like this show, but plenty of low lifes are calling in. Chris is always very good though. Another day some guy had a beef with ticket controllers that are usually of different skin colour as he described. He was ranting he’s been hassled by them and his teenage son like 50 or more times. Man was raging there. I’ve never been hassled, not even once by them and I’ve been using public transport for years. Maybe because in contrast to that caller… I pay for my fares? How dare some foreign person demanded from him to have a valid ticket lol… People of that sort are sadly calling in all the time, good for some laugh though… cant win with stupid.
Some people can get away with saying anything, whilst others have to be as careful as they would be when walking on eggshells.
Just look at the hullabaloo when Panti said that David Squint, Breeder O’Lyin’, Patricia Crazy and John Slobbers at the Iona “institute” were homophobic – which is about as inaccurate as saying the Pope is a Catholic – and those religious whack jobs trousered the guts of 100 grand without the matter even needing to go to court.
Does it really matter what some eejit says when he or she gets on the radio for a minute or two? Does anyone take such fools seriously? The same people would never dare to use insulting terms to handicapped people to their faces and they might be more careful what they say on radio as well if their identities were verified before they were allowed to speak on air. If anyone makes a disgraceful remark about “mongoes”, for example, just make sure the presenter then says: “well Joe Soap of Coote Street, Portlaoise, that’s your opinion, but I can’t say I admire you for it.”
@David Quim: I think you’re last sentence sums up the issue, the complaint was upheld as the BAI felt, that the presenter didn’t challenge the comments in an appropriate enough manner.
It not one of our best radio stations, and they let that Person rubbish these Children for what, because he hated them Barry should have seen where this was going and nipped in the but.
Before it so far.
* bud *
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