The big story in Britain: BBC and the "Sachsgate" scandal

This week, Britain has been obsessed with a scandal involving the BBC and two of its presenters, Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand. The story is being called "Sachsgate" and the media have been giving it greater prominence than the U.S. presidential election or the economic crisis. The disgraceful behavior from two of the BBC's presenters involves a radio programme when they called and left a series of vulgar, lewd messages on the answerphone of an actor, Andrew Sachs and then the prerecorded show with the messages were broadcast, which has caused a national outrage and is the talking point up and down the country. It wasn't just that the messages were in extremely bad-taste (joking and boasting about sexual encounters with the granddaughter of the actor, Mr. Sachs) they really crossed a line when they went on to joke that the actor may kill himself as a result. The British public complained to broadcasting watchdog, Ofcom, which consequently announced its launch of an investigation into the phone calls. More than 27,ooo people complained to the BBC. The Metropolitan Police also received complaints about the telephone messages. The BBC has taken too much time to respond to all the criticisms and the presenters made a half-hearted, jokey attempt at an apology which only made the situation much worse. Then today, the BBC announced that both presenters were suspended (the corporation finally bowed to public anger) and tonight the announcement followed that Russell Brand decided to quit his BBC Radio 2 show. Our BBC TV licence fee pays their salaries. This is basically taxpayer funded bullying! How much lower can the BBC go? I expect the BBC to have some standards if they are going to depend on public funding (via the TV licence fee) especially when that public funding isn't even voluntary. Even Prime Minister Gordon Brown has weighed in, accusing the broadcast of being "clearly unacceptable and inappropriate." You know what really infuritates me in all this debacle? It's when people say they think it was funny and that people who don't like it should just switch off the radio or TV. Charming! Well, it's not just a matter of switching it off since paying a licence fee is not voluntary. The radio show that Russell Brand hosted is aimed at a young audience (their core audience is 16-17 year olds). How many of them pay a license fee? I'm angry because I am being forced to pay a license fee which supports a couple of so-called 'comedians' so they can make offensive comments to an elderly man ( 78-year-old actor, Andrew Sachs) and humiliate him and his granddaughter, which is then broadcast on a radio show to produce a smutty form of entertainment. It isn't a harmless prank - it's a form of harassment. The recorded telephone 'prank' should never have been allowed in the first place. Why should celebrities be allowed to say and do what ever they want without fear of retribution? They made obscene phone calls. It is an offence to use telephone equipment to make such calls, and if you or I had done so we would be facing prosecution and punishment. Someone at the BBC made the decision that the pre-recorded show was okay to be aired. What was he or she thinking? The growing number of complaints are not just about the series of lewd messages that were played on the radio but also because licence payers feel outraged that their money paid for this sick 'prank' which was offensive and abusive, and certainly not funny. I think this became such a huge story because people are seriously upset about the steady decline in the BBC's standards. What kind of example are these "entertainers" setting for the young people in Britain? When did it become acceptable to bully anyone? What are your thoughts?