Sir Trevor cleared over Manning jibe

Sir Trevor McDonald has been cleared of making offensive comments about Bernard Manning in the week of his death.

More than 100 viewers complained to broadcast watchdogs about an item on ITV’s topical comedy show in June titled: ‘Racist and Dead’.

During the broadcast, Sir Trevor said ‘This week, it’s the turn of corpulent, narrow-minded northerner Bernard Manning. Personally, I never thought of Bernard Manning as a racist comic… just a fat, white bastard.’

A total of 112 viewers complained to Ofcom that the use of the expression ‘fat, white bastard” was inappropriate or racist.

However, citing the Human Rights Act guaranteeing free speech, the regulator has today ruled that the line did not breach its rules, which allow the broadcast of potentially offensive material providing it is ‘in context’.

In its ruling, Ofcom said: ‘It was clear from the outset that the programme, whilst a comedy, was an edgy, satirical look at the week’s news, and that on occasions there would be some material that risked offending some viewers.

‘In the case of this programme, Sir Trevor McDonald obviously, and intentionally, drew on Bernard Manning’s own style of humour, which frequently played on the real or apparent prejudices of his audience.

‘The comments were clearly intended to parody Manning’s own comedy, where he claimed he was not himself racist, but simply made “jokes’ based on racial stereotypes”. It was in such a context that Sir Trevor McDonald could therefore state that he did not consider Manning to be a racist but then went on to say that he was “…a fat white bastard”.

Ofcom concluded: ‘We do not believe this specific expression went beyond the likely expectations of an audience for a satirical news-based comedy programme broadcast well after the watershed, and that any offence that may have been caused was justified by the context.’

Here is the contentious clip:

Published: 10 Sep 2007