Is anyone really surprised that a man who sneaked off to hotels with the model wife of his best friend and whose ex-wife gave birth to his son, four months after he marryied his second wife hold females with such low regard?
Rightly, Andy Gray has been sacked by Sky Sports as its head football presenter, a man who puts the W in anchor, for sexist remarks directed by him and his co-presenter Richard Keys, a man who puts the Ass in Association Football, at female match official, Sian Massey, when they thought the mic was turned off.
Richard Keys: Well, somebody better get down there and explain offside to her.
Andy Gray: Yeah, I know. Can you believe that? Female linesman. Forget what I said – they probably don't know the offside rule.
RK: Course they don't.
AG: Why is there a female linesman? Somebody's fucked up big.
RK: I can guarantee you there'll be a big one today. This is not the first time. Didn't we have one before?
AG: Yeah.
RK: Wendy Toms.
AG: Wendy Toms, something like that. She was fucking hopeless as well.
RK: The game's gone mad. See charming Karren Brady this morning complaining about sexism? Yeah. Do me a favour, love.
As much as it irks me to give any credit whatsoever to a Murdoch organ, Sky has to be given credit for sacking Gray, especially as other clips of his crude antics with the opposite sex came to light.
The broadcaster said that it had made clear to both that their comments were "totally unacceptable" and "inexcusable from anyone at Sky regardless of their role or seniority". Then it sacked Gray although Keys may have saved his own scrawny neck by phoning Sian Massey and apologising which is a shame because he is not only a sexist idiot, but a terrible presenter to boot.
I just hope it was a female holding open the door for Gray when he was shown it.
11 comments:
Much as I don't care for Andy Gray as a commentator or as a person, I'm more than a little freaked out by the turn of events here. The incident has been compared to the Ron Atkinson thing a few years ago, when Big Ron used "the N word", but there's a really sinister difference i.e. Atkinson's words were broadcast live; Gray required someone to record his words and take them to the Mail on Sunday (either for money or for an equally nefarious reason which I'll get to shortly).
I think people have totally lost sight of the important issue here. A football commentator is sexist? Big deal. He'd hardly be the only one, and it's not as if he's sucking the public tit or anything; he works for a private company. But... a private conversation suddenly isn't private anymore? Now that's important.
How can anyone seriously maintain that Gray's words are offensive if nobody but Richard Keys hears them?. It's only the reporting of them that's brought this 'offensive' material to light!
Better question: How many of us say words in private that we wouldn't want publicised because they either don't reflect our true opinion, or they do reflect our true opinion but we know better than to say them in public. These are opinions we're (theoretically anyway!) entitled to have. Opinions are still - just - legal in Britain, I believe.
It's all a bit like WikiLeaks, only without the overriding justification for WikiLeaks, which is 'the public interest'... e.g. it's damn useful to know that Benjamin Netanyahu has no intention of negotiating with Mahmoud Abbas, but profoundly uninteresting and unuseful to know that a football commentator is a bit unreconstructed in some of his views.
The real motivation for Gray being stitched up like this may have something to do with his being about to sue the News of the World over this phone-tapping thing... Both Sky and the NOTW are part of Rupert Murdoch's News International. It's easy to imagine Uncle Rupert's fingerprints on this one, vindictive old shite that he is.
We will differ on this one. People like Ron Atkinson and Andy Gray have a position of responsibility and whether their words were meant for all to hear or not, it is the attitude that is unacceptable. Atkinson is a racist and Gray/Keys are sexists and they should have no place in society, let alone fronting television shows. If Gray had kept his job it would have been seen as condoning his attitude and made it even tougher for women to rise in the football world. Much better these kind of people holding these type of views are removed altogether.
As for the theory that he was stitched up over his court action with The NOTW does have legs but if he hadn't said it, and remember he was at work when he did say it, he would still be there so he only has himself to blame.
Lucy,
I come down 100% on the same side as... wait for it... wait for it... Cheezy.
It is one person's word against another. That does not qualify as fact. However, it is the basis of damages for slander...
q
For me, the ends doesn’t even come close to justifying the means in this situation. The ends is that a sexist idiot of a football commentator now has to look for another job. Fine, but ultimately, who cares? One down, thousands to go...
The means however, is that a nasty piece of corporate-sponsored sneakiness has been rewarded, and the whole country has been put on warning that saying unsanctioned and politically incorrect things to a workmate may 'be taken down and used as evidence'.
In CCTV Britain, in which Tony Bliar’s mob stripped away civil liberties at such an alarming rate, this sort of thing goes virtually unnoticed by most people. But I think it’s good to keep an eye out for evermore intrusions on our privacy.
I accept what you’re saying that 'he was at work', but I don’t know how many times me and my male workmates have swapped a surrepticious 'phwoar' if there’s been something nice floating around the office (and there are quite a few of them in this building)... Y’know, it’s the sort of objectivising thing that the 'Loose Women' say about men on their TV show, but they don’t even bother to be discrete about it, do they?
So, hey, here’s fun. Shall I identify one of these male workmates who I don’t like, record his sotto "phwoar, nice rack!" (or whatever) with a sensitive microphone, and then take it to our boss, in order to get rid of him?
Hmmmm. A bit dubious, that. Workplace or not, as long as nobody who wasn’t intended to hear it, heard it, then that’s part of the ‘private sphere’ which everyone is entitled to have.
Now, as you mention in your post, other incidents have come to light, incidents that (to nobody’s real surprise) seem to implicate Gray in sexist behaviour in front of female workmates. That’s a totally different issue in my book. This is the ‘public sphere’, and I don’t think anyone would argue that this sort of thing should not be subject to disciplinary consequences (including potentially sacking). If this is why he’s ultimately been dismissed then I’ve got no problem at all with that... (Personally I’d have gotten rid of him years ago, but that’s just for ‘being crap’)...
But sacking him for an invasion of his privacy is weird, Orwellian (not to mention, in this instance, 'Murdochian') and, importantly I think, it’s not going to change anyone’s opinion about anything. What will change attitudes is women doing a good job, which, in that game, is precisely whatever. The female linesman made a great call in the Scouse v Wolves game, a call that in real-time looked wrong, but she was vindicated by the slow-mo replays. Good job, and I think that's what will change out-dated attitudes.
It'll change them incrementally though, because even if you wanted to legislate people to change attitudes like this, totalitarian-style, it's not actually possible.
PS: More wit and wisdom from the Daily Mash, I see...
I swear I didn't read that until after I posted my comment :)
I do understand the arguement that it was a bit of banter and a private conversation, i even understand the concerns for office banter, but Andy Gray is arguably the person most associated on television with the Premier League so his views carry some weight. The more we find out about it, the more it seems he was stitched up by a co-worker with a grudge or even with instructions from higher up. This is another case of whistle blowing and i am all for it. I do agree that he was punchable though.
Just seen Richard Keys has resigned from Sky Sports. I haven't read his resignation statament but i hope that he has said about wanting to spend more time with his family. I love that one.
"Andy Gray is arguably the person most associated on television with the Premier League so his views carry some weight. "
Actually, the one thing I think Andy must have learned from this whole episode is that he doesn't draw much water at all, not even at Sky, still less at the FA.
Now, if he was some public figure in the FA, deciding policy for the game as a whole (including who gets to officiate the games), then I would have thought that blowing the whistle on him (assuming it was done for virtuous non-Rupert-related related reasons - which I'd say it wasn't) would have been totally justified. That would be an example of the public interest outweighing the demands of privacy. But he wasn't anything like that. He was just some voice talking about a ball being kicked around a bit of grass.
By the way, surely nobody on the planet is going to think: "Andy Gray doesn't think women are much cop as officials. I guess he must be right".
That's if we'd even heard what he'd said in the first place, which, of course, we never would have done if the 'whistle-blower' had not snitched on him. Somehow, I don't think the public interest was much in the snitch's mind...
In any case, in terms of everyone I know, the 'Andy Gray effect' is an exclusively inverse one i.e. we'll tend to want to disagree with pretty much everything that comes out of his idiot mouth.
The real motivation for Gray being stitched up like this may have something to do with his being about to sue the News of the World over this phone-tapping thing
I just love this story. It's the gift that just keeps on giving. Layer after layer of absurdity and irony keep getting removed for our edification...
e.g. This morning Richard Keys' wife was in the paper trying to explain the remarks by saying: "With men there are bits that never grow up."
WTF??!! That's sexism! We should find out where she works and get her sacked! We must deny this evil family of all sources of income...
I saw the pictures of his wife bringing out pots of tea for the reporters and had to sigh when i read that quote. Has she not been paying attention?
I also enjoy the Sun getting all moral on page 5 and then phwooring over a picture of Cheryl Cole with half her boob showing on page 7.
Post a Comment