[Stoat]

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

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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.

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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.

[ml/nj]

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

ML/MK

[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.

[wastedyears]

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