Today sees the beginning of a fresh racism row stemming from Channel 4’s Big Brother, and the media coverage has so far been very interesting to watch.
The story goes that a Big Brother contestant has been evicted for directing the term ‘nigger’ at a housemate – the exact context of the use isn’t clear (although the BBC News article shines some light on it) but will be when Channel 4 broadcast the scene later tonight. It’s fair enough to assume from the broadcaster’s reaction, however, that it was taken quite seriously.
BBC News 24 was naturally giving some coverage to the story and putting it in the context of a similar racism row which came from this year’s Celebrity Big Brother.
A segment shown on BBC News 24 earlier today was introduced with a warning that “some may find some of the language used in this report offensive” (paraphrased) and the reporter narrating the piece used the term ‘nigger’ on two occasions; first to explain what was said and then to briefly discuss the use of the word in general.
About an hour later the story was covered again and the same warning was given by the news presenter. This time, however, the package was being narrated by a different person, and its contents were slightly updated. What was bizarre, however, was that the new narrator said the evicted contestant used “the N word” and at no point was the term ‘nigger’ used in the package.
It was, however, used afterwards by an ex-Big Brother contestant who was discussing the fresh controversy with the two news presenters. This wasn’t pre-packaged or part of the “potentially offensive” report so the warning didn’t really make much sense despite this.
It seems odd that a news channel would dance around a word, or change its mind on its use, when it is trying to give readers the full facts. Didn’t the BBC, amongst many others, relish at the opportunity to repeat George W. Bush’s ‘shit’ almost a year ago? And why be so precious about any word when it is being used to inform the story rather than actually offend?
It would be odd for a news organisation to think that by using a term with the potential to offend, they themselves are causing or encouraging offense. Surely, if this were actually the case a news organisation that featured details of a war would be causing or encouraging violence also?
Perhaps this is a total coincidence too, but the only people who used the word ‘nigger’ on BBC News 24 (that I saw) were black or asian. The first package was presented by an asian reporter (the name of whom I cannot recall or find), the “on the scene” report after the first package (which didn’t contain the word ‘nigger’) was presented by a black reporter, while the subsequent version of the package, which replaced the word ‘nigger’ with ‘the n-word’, was presented by Andrew Burrows, who is white.
Using a black Big Brother constant is understandable as he knows the competition quite well and could discuss what his own reaction would be to being called a nigger. But did the BBC go out of their way to ensure the woman reporting in the earlier package was asian, and the “on the scene” reporter was black?
I hope not. Surely the media isn’t so careful of itself that it avoids having a white person (or, for that matter, any person) utter the dreaded ‘n-word’, even when they’re using it to inform and not offend.