Ken Morley's ejection from Big Brother (an example of issues and debates)
Ken Morley's ejection from Big Brother occurred following Britain's crackdown on racial discrimination within the television and film industries, and the increase in sensitivity towards derogatory language. This can be linked with the rising prominence of media regulation terms such as "gatekeeping", "censorship" and "moral panic", all of which are used to define methods which restrict the British audience content which may be potentially harmful to unsuited viewers. Development for British censorship of racial discrimination may have risen from how racial communities were depicted and discussed in earlier British television. For example:
Mind Your Language - The First Lesson
Till Death Do Us Part - Strikes and Blackouts
Love Thy Neighbour - Voodoo Business
Ken Morley's ejection In January 2015, Ofcom received 250 complaints about racist remarks on Channel 5's Big Brother. People may have complained about Big Brother’s content, as during the conversation of Frank Bruno, Ken Morley used highly derogatory comments in a way which offends an entire community. Morley has also received various warnings beforehand, meaning that people may have been frustrated with Morley continuing to use offensive language. The article states that Morley has been known for his controversial comments, and “repeatedly clashed with his housemates”. A prior warning was given to Morley following his labelling of Alexander O’Neal as a “nice big fat n***o”. Ken Morley is also responsible for making countless sexist remarks towards female housemates usually in a lewd or creepy manner. This kind of behaviour makes viewers and other actors on the show very uncomfortable, especially nowadays this sexist vocabulary is entirely unacceptable. One remark from Ken that really sparked an outrage was when he stated “They've got the best looking bodies. They've got the best looking a**** - what is wrong with a man looking?”. Morley’s derogatory sexualisation of women played a large role in the rise of complaints towards his behaviour on the show. A lot of the complaints from this incident came from the fact that Ken believed that he wasn't in the wrong and refused to give a sincere apology to the audience and his housemates in the show. Within the article one can see that Morley states “I don’t think it was offensive, it is an outdated expression but I didn’t want to offend anyone”. Morley’s continual lack of remorse may be a stimulus for further complaints, as viewers may have found the actor’s behaviour and attempts at apology unacceptable. |