The Saturday Night Show receives official complaint about Obama comment
Saturday Night show presenter Brendan O'Connor has received an official complaint from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) for his remarks about President Obama on the Saturday Night Show.
The complainant states that during an interview with the Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, Brendan suggested that Mr. Walsh should stand for President of the US because we had “the black guy…” and that if he won we would “have one of our own”.
“The complaint to the broadcaster alleged that the presenter’s comment implied that only white people can be truly Irish (“. . . the host . . . doesn’t appreciate that colour and nationality are not mutually exclusive”),” the BAI states.
This is how it went down;
During the conversation host Brendan said: “What we’d really like, and I guess what everyone in Connemara would really like, is if you wouldn’t mind becoming the President….’cause if we had an actual President …”
“….of Ireland or America?,” Mr Walsh asked.
“No become the President of America…given that we’ve managed to appropriate a black guy, like, if we had an actual President of our own… who actually was really connected with us.. I mean we could go crazy here,” Brendan replied.
In the complaint documents released by the BAI, Mr Walsh says he was “aghast and almost stunned by the comments made by the programme presenter and quickly pointed to the validity of President Obama’s roots in Ireland.”
RTÉ have now stated In an official apology, that they didn’t mean to cause any offence.
Their statement said: “RTÉ regrets any offence which may have been taken by the complainant in respect of this exchange but believes that, in the context of the clear meaning of the remarks and their jocular tone, no such offence could be seen as undue.”
BAI has looked further into the complaint and have now said the matter has been “resolved”.
H/T: Goss.ie
