Ofcom Raps Talksport Over Dual Gay Comments

Radio station TalkSport has fallen foul of Ofcom after the media regulator
criticized offensive comments made by two of its presenters against gay people.

Ofcom found TalkSport to be in breach of its broadcasting code in relation to
the two incidents during Mike Mendoza’s live phone-in show on 12th May and the
‘Football First’ chat show on 3rd June.

During the first show, Mendoza was discussing the publicity campaign around
the disappearance of young girl Madeline McCann in Portugal and stated:
‘Paedophiles in general are the type of people that surely would not follow
football… not many gay people to the best of my knowledge are great football
fans.’

TalkSport had already taken action following the show, including suspending
Mendoza for a week – an action which Ofcom applauded, but the media regulator
again referenced the remark as ‘highly offensive’ in its report.

In the second incident on ‘Football First’, during a discussion about gay
rights, Garry Bushell said: ‘I think there are a lot of things to put right in
this country before you go around preaching the gospel of perversion.’

TalkSport agreed that the comments, which it described as “off the cuff”,
were wrong but Ofcom said that being “off the cuff” did not mitigate against the
offensiveness of the comments.

In its ruling, Ofcom recommended that TalkSport fully briefs its presenters
about topics likely to be discussed on programmes and the types of remarks that
are likely to cause offence.