BBC Radio Broadcaster, Danny Baker, was fired from BBC after a posting a racially insensitive photo about the new royal baby.
What We Know:
- Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry welcomed a healthy baby boy, named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Winsdor, on Monday, May 6th.
- On Wednesday, May 8th, Baker tweeted a black and white photo showing a man and woman holding hands with a chimpanzee that was dressed in a coat and hat. His caption for the photo read “Royal baby leaves hospital. This immediately caused a backlash in regards to race due to the new royal baby being biracial.
- Baker defended his post on Twitter by stating, “was supposed to be a joke about Royals vs circus animals in posh clothes but interpreted as about monkeys & race, so rightly deleted. Royal watching not my forte.” He claimed that he was not aware the post would be taken that way since his “mind [is] not diseased”. Despite this, he admits that he made an “enormous mistake” when he posted it.
- A spokesperson for BBC issued a statement regarding the Twitter posts. “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 representing a weekly show with us.”
- BBC fired Baker Thursday, May 9th.
- Baker was clearly frustrated with the way BBC handled the situation. On Twitter he exclaimed [sic] “[BBC] literally threw me under the bus.”
At this time, there have been no comments from the Royals in regards to the situation.
