Turn off your taste-and-decency filter, BBC - play Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead
"People's sensitivities should be cherished and acknowledged, but they cannot be allowed to put a stop to our freedom to make up our own minds about what we listen to," says RT radio editor Jane Anderson
The invertebrate creatures scuttling around at the top of the BBC might like to consider this quotation from Margaret Thatcher: “If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time – and you would achieve nothing.”
After hours of pointless howling in the wind by people who think broadcasting Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead on Sunday’s Radio 1 Chart Show is tasteless/indecent/wonderful/hilarious/insert–adjective-of-your-choice-here, the BBC have decided to “compromise.” They’ll play a clip, but not the whole song.
If there was a life after death then a spectral Maggie would be raising an “up yours” clawed finger at the BBC right now for their weakness. Either they ban it or they don’t.
Some people will find it offensive and that is a perfectly reasonable standpoint to take. But when I woke up this morning there was still freedom of speech in this country, which means I do not expect what I am reading, what I am listening to or what I am watching to have come through a taste-and-decency filter run by the BBC.
People’s sensitivities should be cherished and acknowledged and considered in all editorial judgements, but they cannot be allowed to put a stop to our freedom to make up our own minds about what we listen to.
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Whatever your views on Margaret Thatcher, she was bigger and tougher than Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead and, as I write this, over 8,000 RadioTimes.com readers agree that the song should be played out on Sunday’s show. It’ll take more than a bucket of water for the BBC to dissolve this bubbling mess.
