BBC Radio host sacked after call to taxi firm requesting 'non-Asian' driver

The Daily Mail (U.K.) / various ^ | November 11, 2008

[Stoat]

A BBC Radio presenter has been sacked following a 'racist' call to a taxi firm, in which she requested a 'non-Asian' driver.

Sam Mason told the operator that 'a guy with a turban would freak her daughter out'   insisting they send an English driver instead.

The ex-glamour girl, 40, called the firm to order a taxi for her 14-year-old daughter off-air, while presenting her BBC Bristol radio show.

After the operator branded her request 'racist', Mason insisted, claiming it wasn't the first time she had made the request.

She said: 'A guy with a turban is going to freak her out. She's not used to Asians.'
 

When the operator said it would not be possible to carry out her wishes, she said: 'You've managed it before.'
 

Mason, who has previously battled alcohol addiction, claimed she wasn't racist but insisted she was looking out for her daughter's interest.

Mason said: 'If it were me I wouldn't care if it had two heads, but it's my little girl we are talking about.'

After the operator refused to book a car, Mason complained before hanging up.

The operator said: 'We would class that as being racist. We can't just penalise the Asian drivers and just send an English one.'

[Stoat]

Sacked: BBC Radio Bristol host Sam Mason, who was dismissed following a 'racist' phone call to a local taxi firm

***************************************

Original Exclusive article from the UK Sun....an audio recording of the call is available at the link

BBC girl Sam Mason says Don’t send me an Asian cabbie The Sun News

 

 

Off air ... fired radio host Sam Mason

 

Exclusive

 

BBC girl: Don’t send me an Asian cabbie

 

By JOHN COLES

Published: Today

 

 

A BBC presenter has been fired for telling a taxi firm not to send an Asian driver to pick up her daughter.

Sam Mason, 40, told a cab operator: “A guy with a turban on is going to freak her out.”

When her request was refused, she snapped: “You’ve managed it before.” The taxi worker was so outraged she recorded the conversation and passed a copy of it to The Sun.

You can hear the astonishing call by clicking on the multimedia link, right.

Mum-of-one Mason, an ex-TV glamour girl, called the cab firm off-air as she played a song on her BBC Radio Bristol afternoon show.

Race row ... BBC station where Mason worked

 

A transcript of the conversation records how she ordered a taxi to take her 14-year-old from her Clifton house to her grandparents’ home.

Mason then says: “I know this sounds really racist, but I’m not being . . . please, don’t send anyone like, you know what I mean. An English person would be great, a female would be better.”

Operator: “We would class that as being racist. We can’t penalise the Asian drivers and just send an English one.”

Mason: “You’ve managed it before.”

Operator: “Right, OK. I don’t agree with it personally.”

Mason: “It’s not your 14-year-old girl who’s, you know, is it?”

Operator: “Yes, but that’s racist to say you don’t want an Asian driver.”

Mason: “If it were me I wouldn’t care if it had two heads, but it’s my little girl we are talking about.”

Mason, who has battled alcoholism, is then handed to a male operator and tells him that his female colleague has “a bad attitude”.

She adds: “I work at the BBC. I’m far from racist and that uneducated woman has no right to call me one.” She says of her daughter: “I don’t want her to turn up with a guy with a turban on, it’s going to freak her out. She’s not used to Asians.

“She’s not racist – her godparents are black.” Mason rang off, but called back later to complain before a manager accepted her booking.

She was suspended when we alerted the BBC and fired 24 hours later.

A spokesman for BBC Bristol said: “Although Sam Mason’s remarks were not made on air, her comments were completely unacceptable.”

The taxi worker said all calls were routinely recorded and logged in case of queries or complaints.

*************************************************************

BBC NEWS England Bristol BBC host replaced in 'racism' row

Miss Mason presented Radio Bristol's weekday afternoon programme

[Stoat]

She adds: “I work at the BBC. I’m far from racist and that uneducated woman has no right to call me one.”

Translation:  "As an elitist member of the dinosaur socialist media I am of course more intelligent than anyone else and societal standards, which are intended for the unwashed masses,  should not be applied to me."

[Borges]

"A BBC Radio presenter has been sacked"

Those responsible have also been sacked. /Python

[PeterFinn]

Right, but it’s okay for cabbies to refuse to take passengers who are Jewish, passengers who are blind and with guide dogs, and passengers who are transporting alcohol. Sorry, but if the mooselimb cabbies get to discriminate against passengers then passengers should get to discriminate against neo-fascist thugs driving cabs.

[Frantzie]

The BBC’s journalistic view is that all whites are evil and racist. The rest of their MSM and newspapers have a similiar view. My guess is this will be the new standard in America with Oprahma.

[manc]

typical of elitists
they harp on about diversity but do not practise it , no instead they want the likes of me to have people who are not English speaking and who are not from the country but God forbid if they actually live on what they preach.

course I am not allowed to voice that opinion to them as I never went to ivy league schools

[manc]

what you haven’t got the new obama memo though the mail?

it’s OK for muslims, blacks, homo’s,liberals to be racist, bigoted, sexist and elitist

[Clock King]

You beat me to it. If they didn't discriminate, then they would have a leg to stand on. As it is, they refuse to pick up people with dogs, single women, people with booze (not drunk). And we're supposed to just role over and take it. F*** that, and F*** the governments of the West who are forcing this on us.

[muawiyah]

The problem here consists of two words ~ "Asian" and "racist".

Folks who live in UK mean something entirely different than English speaking Americans mean when it comes to these words.

First of all, it's about "Indians and Pakistanis", not "Asians", but "Indian subcontinent" people. Secondly, it's not about "race", since most of these guys are just another version of the same old white people found throughout Europe, except with deeper tans and fuzzier bodies ~ lots of hair over there eh!

The Brits really mean "ethnicity", as if they don't have their own "ethnicities".

It's an absolute zoo over there, and compounding it with confusion over what words really mean, it's only going to get worse. UK must be brought into line with standard English first.

[ml/nj]

I'm glad I visited London long ago. I prefer to remember it the way it was>

ML/MK

[Emmett McCarthy]

I wonder what would have happened if shs’d said she didn’t want one of those “Irish” drivers. You know, with us being drunk all the time and all.

[Stoat]

Right, but it’s okay for cabbies to refuse to take passengers who are Jewish, passengers who are blind and with guide dogs, and passengers who are transporting alcohol. Sorry, but if the mooselimb cabbies get to discriminate against passengers then passengers should get to discriminate against neo-fascist thugs driving cabs.

I wonder also if Sam Mason had been a muzzie and had specifically requested a muzzie driver "in order to insure that my daughter is treated in a manner consistent with our beliefs" whether there would be any mention of this incident at all, or if the operator would have quietly sent her a muzzie driver rather than sending a tape of the call to the Sun and ultimately causing her termination.

[Jack Hammer]

Absolutely gorgeous girl.

The irony is that if he was wearing a turban, the chances are he was a Sikh; member of a group which is composed of decent, hard-working, honest, fiercely patriotic people who were among some of the most passionate and courageous soldiers in the King’s Army - and who DON’T discriminate over passengers’ whiskey, bacon, ham, pork, guide dogs, Jewish religion, or anything else. Wonderful people.

Of course, he MIGHT have been a Mooselimb, but... doughnuts to dollars he wasn’t.

[Sir_Ed]

Whenever I call car service I always call the Italian-owned car service, not the Arab-owned car service.

Does that make me a racist? Nope...there’s a local Coptic church where hundreds of Arabs worship and I’ve gone there on occasion, and welcome them as brothers, but I’m suspicious of Muslims, so I try to give my money to non-Muslims.

I’ll never forget the time I was at a pizza parlor owned by a Lebanese family, and we got to talking. They started telling me that Jews were evil, Satan’s spawn...I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

It turned out they were Muslims who had moved here from Dearborn, and ever since that day I don’t trust Muslims, I don’t know if they believe the same way those restaurant owners did.

Ed

[Mark was here]

I was discussing with my wife the other day my idea for a “Diversity Restaurant”. The hostess would ask you what kind of waiter or waitress you wanted, Indian, white, black, Mexican, gay, lesbian, Canadian ... whatever and then you would be seated in their section. This way patrons could show their good judgment in being diverse to others.

[Stoat]

The BBC’s journalistic view is that all whites are evil and racist. The rest of their MSM and newspapers have a similiar view. My guess is this will be the new standard in America with Oprahma.

Since it appears that the motivation of most B. Hussein 0bama acolytes was and remains his skin color, their belief has been in large measure that anyone who would dare to vote for anyone else is of course a racist.  Any opposition to BHO's policies will be viewed as "subtle, hidden racism" as well.

The media talking heads will be stepping up their veiled and increasingly overt charges of racism against any Republican effort to protect America from the Socialist leviathan.

[wastedyears]

She’s a little big, but definitely not guilty.

[Stoat]

typical of elitists
they harp on about diversity but do not practise it , no instead they want the likes of me to have people who are not English speaking and who are not from the country but God forbid if they actually live on what they preach.

course I am not allowed to voice that opinion to them as I never went to ivy league schools

Agreed on all counts.

I also find it interesting that most or all of the media stories about this mention her alcoholism.....as if to say that 'racist behavior' is a natural outgrowth of alcoholism.  Why else include it in the story if they didn't feel it was somehow relevant?

So now 'racism' is a physiological problem like a chemical / substance addiction?

Or, perhaps they are of the view that alcoholism is a character flaw, and so it 'naturally follows' that the 'character flaw' of 'racism' would of course follow alcoholism?

I recall an entertainment 'news' hubbub some time ago where I think one actor called another a 'fag'....and then the offending actor promised to go to rehab as penance.

Rehab for a politically-incorrect word?  Will the BBC now quietly suggest that Sam Mason go to rehab for her 'racism'?

George Orwell obviously had too high of a regard for people's common sense....

typical of elitists
they harp on about diversity but do not practise it , no instead they want the likes of me to have people who are not English speaking and who are not from the country but God forbid if they actually live on what they preach.

course I am not allowed to voice that opinion to them as I never went to ivy league schools

[manc]

I went to a liberal moving website called city data , anyway a woman asked about moving to my state and wanted a diverse place.
I told her that Miami, Tampa and Orlando was very diverse and that she will meet people who are form lots of different cultures and languages.

She replied I ma not moving to a place where I have to speak Spanish

Another time another woman asked about moving to MA and wanted diversity so I named places like Brockton, Roxbury, Dorchester, New Bedford etc

She replied I kid you not.
I am not moving to a place with poor people.
I asked why and she said” well they are all drug addicts, alcoholics, have mental issues etc.

I nearly fell off my chair at her elitist attitude and arrogance.

Preach tolerance and diversity but don’t do it get those poorer folk to do it.

[Stoat]

Preach tolerance and diversity but don’t do it get those poorer folk to do it.

Astonishing hypocrisy, but I would wager that's it's only astonishing to those of us who believe that what's good for the goose is also good for the gander.

In so many areas of life, Leftists demonstrate that they have absolutely zero interest in practicing what they preach.

How many times have Leftist Hollywood actors or politicians who have bleated about the importance of gun control been reported as having defended themselves or their families with a gun....a gun which they would prefer that nobody but 'people like them' be allowed to own?