Posted on 01/16/2004 10:53:51 PM PST by freedom44
Robert Kilroy-Silk has agreed to quit as presenter of the BBC's morning talkshow after 17 years just a week after the row blew up over his anti-Arab diatribe in the Sunday Express.
In a carefully worded statement agreed by both sides, Kilroy-Silk said he believed it was the right time to leave the programme and concentrate on other projects but it is clear that he was given no choice by BBC bosses.
After a marathon eight hour meeting with BBC bosses today, the corporation announced that Kilroy-Silk would leave the show but that his TV production company will continue to make the programme with a different host.
But the former MP is set to take on new roles at the BBC after the corporation paid warm tribute to his "authority and style" and called him "a substantial force in the media industry."
Kilroy-Silk said: "I believe this is the right moment to leave the programme and concentrate my energies in other directions. I will continue to lead the Kilroy Television Company Ltd and in addition to our existing commitments to the BBC, we will be bringing new ideas and programmes to the BBC and other broadcasters."
He added that he had been "overwhelmed" by the support from the public, saying: "I continue to believe that it is my right to express my views, however uncomfortable they may be."
The row blew up after he described Arabs as "suicide bombers, limp amputators and women repressors" in a Sunday Express column.
While Kilroy-Silk is unrepentant about what he wrote, he admitted today that his column had put the BBC in a difficult position.
"However, I recognise the difficulties this has caused the BBC, and I believe my decision is the right way to resolve the situation."
The BBC's director of television, Jana Bennett, said presenters of news and current affairs shows could not express "uncomfortable" views without their impartiality being compromised but was at pains to stress that the decision was not about freedom of speech.
"Presenters of this kind of programme have a responsibility to uphold the BBC's impartiality. This does not mean that people who express highly controversial views are not welcome on the BBC but they cannot be presenters of a news, current affairs or topical discussion programme," said Ms Bennett.
She went on to pay tribute to Kilroy-Silk's authoritative style, saying he "has ensured that BBC daytime viewers were better informed on almost every subject that affected their daily lives."
"He has done so with authority and style, and his programme is one that many have tried to emulate.
"We are very grateful to Robert for his contribution over the years, and we look forward to building on his achievements with the programme and wish to continue to work with Robert in other on-screen roles. He remains a substantial force in the media industry."
The BBC is working on a new version of Kilroy-Silk's discussion programme which it hopes to begin broadcasting in the next few weeks.
The programme, which will continue to be produced by the team at the Kilroy Television Company, will be presented by a number of guest hosts for the remainder of the present series.
He has presented Kilroy since it was first broadcast as Day to Day in November 1986, becoming Kilroy in 1987. His company has produced 15 series of the show for the BBC.
The 220 half-hour shows represent a huge chunk of the quota of programming that the corporation must commission from independent producers.
It took Kilroy-Silk, his lawyers, BBC bosses and the corporation's lawyer Janet Youngson a full eight hours to come to the agreement.
Ms Bennett and Alison Sharman, the BBC's controller of daytime programmes, have been debating Kilroy-Silk's future since the publication of his article 10 days ago.
The talkshow last night received the support of the education minister, David Milliband, who called the decision to suspend the show "absurd". "I don't believe Kilroy-Silk is a racist. I think the decision by the BBC to take him off the air is absurd," he told BBC1's Question Time.
However the Commission for Racial Equality has referred the article to the police for investigation and its head, Trevor Phillips, said Kilroy-Silk should "learn something about Muslims and Arabs" and use some of his "vast earnings" to support a Muslim charity as recompense for his column.
THe BBC is a frightening organization of Jew baiters.
Can you believe this ignorant comment is from the education minister,?
With such an uneducated comment I can see why the Brits are having problems.
Leni
First, it is literally impossible for Kilroy-Silk, an Anglo Saxon, to be a racist in this instance. Anglo Saxons and Arabs are the same race. They are both subsets of European Caucasoids.
Second, what was published was not what Kilroy-Silk wrote, or what was originally published. Editorial reviewers deleted the word nations from after the word Arab. What was published this time round was admittedly a cultural derision but what Kilroy-Silk actually wrote was an accurate observation.
Yes and no. The statement defending Kilroy-Silk was accurate but also ignorant and harmful.
To say that Kilroy-Silk was "not a racist" implied that any statement, whether geopolitical or cultural, can somehow be morally equated to a shade of racism was pandering to and providing support for the growing group in our societies who what to apply the term racist to almost any action that implies a moral decision.
If anyone should know the definition of race and therefore the definition of racism it should be the minister of education. His academic ignorance of basic anthropology and his furtherance of ignorance was shameful.
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