No we dont HAVE too. I dont. I have no telly and dont listen to radio. I joined a film club and watch a few DVD's on my computer a couple of times a month, £3.99 a month, which is a lot cheaper than getting a TV licence and then having to buy the channels I want just to watch maybe two half decent series a year and some film re-runs.
I just have to go to my folks or a pub to watch the GP, but this is a good thing - my folks are better cooks.
The prime minister is involved because this is the state propaganda channel, and because it is a healthy distraction from whatever they don't want us to be talking about. Celebrities provide absolutely fantastic diversions.
It's amusing that you're all saying the BBC is loving this in it's role of "state propaganda" broadcaster - yet it's only the BBc that refers to them as "prank" calls.
I can't be the only one to have noticed that making such phonecalls is actually illegal. If you or I did this we would get arrested under the Telecommunications Act 1984 or the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. Why should it be any different for a pair of overpaid narcissistic twats?
But it's not headline blanket coverage material. I know it's contradictory for me to fuel the fire, but when the country is going t1ts up, surely there are more important things to concern ourselves with.
I can't believe they have been suspended for that bullshizzle.
I'm sorry, but if no-one was allowed to get a laugh at someone else's expense, then this world would be even more drab than it has gotten already...
I'm glad Brand's quit, I honestly thought he was a bit of a douche, to put it mildly. However, he shouldn't have quit for that reason - I think everyone was a little too excited about the whole ordeal. They should have both had a slap across the knuckles and continued on.
Anyway, Brand is making it big in the USA so he's got nothing to worry about.
Next, will we get newsflashes and wall to wall coverage of Adrian Chiles farting or something else irrelevant and painted up as being major?
The calls were not funny, but only two complaints were recieved before it was slapped on the front page of the ... surprise surprise ... Daily Fail. He should be apologising for this (but not sacked) - he should not have been about that "christian rock" bunch of cretins in the US.
lol your avatar holds the next big story. When Massa is crowned champion on Sunday (which he WILL be), and no doubt with something controversial, it will be the big escapism news story for the week.
I fear Top Gear will be next, they're not exactly Politically Correct.
To be honest, this is no big deal to the likes of Brand and Ross, as I said earlier, I dont doubt at all that the likes of ITV will be waiting to take them on (not the 1st time for Ross).
Sometimes controversy makes people even more sucessful, Brand is one of those people.
I almost think Brand's resignation was one he was happy to make. He's probably bored of a regular radio show with his new fame in the US. This really isn't news, a lot of nonsense over some pretty light comments. Brand's a smart man, he has plenty of other work to be getting on with and it wouldn't surprise me if he ends up on another station or Satellite radio... hmm Russel with Howard Stern!
It seems most people here hate him, but the download/listening figures speak otherwise.
At first I though he was a overhyped tosser with a wacky haircut, but he actually is very cleaver and very funny. A lot of people don't give him a chance, but I quite like it that way - they're missing out.
Also agree with 5haz, they'll be annoyed to see him leave, he was a big crowd gatherer at Radio 2. Frankly he's better than the BBC anyway, too restricted there.
What really gets me though is that thousands of people are in uproar about this, I just do not understand why people are so on edge about every little thing that people say.
People complain because they can. People can because of the 'socially acceptable' stuff, obviously most of the 'socially unacceptable stuff' that would get a radio DJ fined/fired would obviously be included at a dinner with freinds, or in some cases (if you have a happy one) a family.
Because, obviously, just because everyone can hear it, doesn't mean nobody would say it.
'sides, some people just jump at every little thing, trying to make themselves feel more secure knowing that they've indirectly affected the life of someone, often for the worse.
Anyway, I thought the whole thing was quite funny... Has anyone actually listened to it? Go on, since they've made it so public, you might as well listen in to what the Great British public gets so upset about...
I think the reason why Brand is so popular is because he is a bit idiotic, people like to laugh at him rather than with him (me included), so in a way he is a bit like a modern day clown.
I also don't understand what all the fuss is about, just a few weeks ago Brand launched into a long rant about Bi-sexual people (obviously he was just having a joke really), and his guest Simon Amstell sounded a but horrified, yet nobody raised an eyebrow.
There are a lot of narcissistic wankers in Britain who have just walked off, laughing, with a great deal of public money. Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross don't actually work in The City, and haven't actually screwed the public purse to quite the same extent, or in quite the same way, but its a close enough resemblance for some people.
Mostly people (Daily Mail readers) who have yet to admit their own complicity in creating the bubble that has just burst.
only a few people complained as the radio show was going out. It was only afterwords in the gathering media storm that supposedly 18000 people put their daily mails down and complained
the whole thing is ludicrous. Yes what they did was wrong but it has been blown way out of proportion
Not really. I don't get why people keep making comparisons to Fonejacker.
Fonejacker is done with the consent of everyone involved, the calls done with filming on the street are personally set up by their mates, and the most it does is a bit of innuendo.
Compared to Brand and Ross, which involved:
using Sachs' mobile number, given to Brand & his production team in good faith due to his absence, not for the purposes of making "entertainment" on the show
made calls to it that were unsolicited, unwanted, abusive, and generally indecent. Remember that this isn't some mates calling you and leaving you a message full of abuse, this is somebody who Sachs doesn't know personally.
later asking Sachs over the phone if they could use the segment, to which he didn't say "yes" because he couldn't hear it properly over the phone, then they went and broadcast it anyway.
Brand's idea of an initial apology, which involved singing about how funny it was.
Obviously the whole thing has been blown massively out of proportion. It's nothing to do with Gordon Brown (he said he wants to reflect the opinion of the country - so why doesn't he resign and go jump in the Thames, preferably taking along the rest of his Cabinet?), and the 20,000+ complaints is somewhat silly. Georgina Bailey's publicist is Max Clifford, which is all you need to know.
But I maintain that if you or I made such calls and the recipient complained about it, chances are you'd end up chatting to the police. What should have happened was that the complaint was made to the BBC by Sachs' agent, Brand and Ross should've immediately apologised and resigned for a gross lapse of common decency and judgement, then it's a private matter between Sachs/Bailey and Brand/Ross whether they make a complaint to the police.
Yeah, I admit (in the other thread) that ignoring Sach's lack of consent was the real offence, but ultimately this blame should be laid with the production team and not the 'front of house' performers.
And as you said 'making' prank calls is illegal. The Spanner trial all those years ago proved that consenting to something doesn't mean much under law. That is why people have mentioned Fonejacker. A prank call is a prank call. Just because you like it doesn't make it legal.
