Offend Jesus - But Don't Offend Manuel

Whilst it is good that the BBC has, finally, taken action against Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand – we note with alarm how this contrasts to their blaze attitude to Jerry Springer the Opera when a record 63,000 complaints were sent to the BBC – twice the number generated by the Brand-Ross affair.

Brand and Ross offended Andrew Sachs, the actor who played Manuel in Faulty Towers – whereas Jerry Springer the Opera portrayed Jesus as a childish, foul-mouthed woman-beater with a sexual predilection for human excrement and who declared himself to be “a bit gay”. It also featured an attempt by Eve to masturbate Jesus.

In what many saw as a godless in-house stitch-up, Ofcom refused to act and BBC Director General, Mark Thompson, vigorously defended this treatment of Jesus.  However, when Manuel was offended, Mark Thompson issued a grovelling apology and acted against those responsible for the offense. 

It comes as little surprise that, last month, Mark Thompson candidly admitted that the BBC treats Christianity less sensitively than other religions.  The BBC’s Andrew Marr has described the corporation as “not impartial or neutral. It’s a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias.”  We agree with Mr. Marr’s synopsis.

We urge you to click here to contact Mark Thompson – ask him why offending Jesus is acceptable, but offending Manuel is not?