Danny Baker sacked by BBC over chimp tweet about royal baby Archie
Written by News on 09/05/2019
Danny Baker has been sacked by the BBC after tweeting a joke about the duke and duchess of Sussex’s son using a picture of a monkey.
The radio DJ posted a black and white photo showing a well-dressed man and woman holding hands with a suited chimpanzee.
Baker captioned it: “Royal baby leaves hospital”.
He later apologised, writing: “Sorry my gag pic of the little fella in the posh outfit has whipped some up. Never occurred to me because, well, mind not diseased,” he wrote.
“Soon as those good enough to point out its possible connotations got in touch, down it came. And that’s it.”
It was Baker himself who announced via his Twitter account the decision by the BBC.
“Just got fired from @bbc5live. For the record – it was red sauce. Always.”
When asked by Sky News if he felt let down by the BBC’s decision, he replied: “No, I just feel let down that people think I meant it.”
A BBC spokesman said: “This was a serious error of judgement and goes against the values we as a station aim to embody.
“Danny’s a brilliant broadcaster but will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us.”
Following his original tweet, other users reacted with anger with @nick_BLM writing: “All those people defending #DannyBaker saying they can’t see the connection between black people and sick racist monkey comments try being a black kid at school for a while! #RoyalBaby
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The 61-year-old later deleted the post and apologised again, saying the joke was intended to poke fun at the Royal family.
“Once again. Sincere apologies for the stupid unthinking gag pic earlier. Was supposed to be joke about Royals vs circus animals in posh clothes but interpreted as about monkeys & race, so rightly deleted.
“Royal watching not my forte. Also, guessing it was my turn in the barrel.”
Harry and Meghan, whose mother is African American, revealed on Wednesday that their new arrival was named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
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(c) Sky News 2019: Danny Baker sacked by BBC over chimp tweet about royal baby Archie
