The BBC “reprimanded” cricket host Jonathan Agnew after he sent profane messages to journalist Jonathan Liew on Twitter, the Independent reported. Agnew also called Liew a racist, the Guardian reported.
According to the Independent, Agnew called Liew, the Independent‘s chief sports writer, the c-word in private Twitter messages.
The controversy started when Liew wrote a column referencing player Jofra Archer, asking why Archer is “deemed such a grave threat” to England’s team camaraderie, adding “There is an incendiary word you could posit to describe all this but I’m not going to use it.” Then, Agnew sent the c-word a few times in messages privately, Yahoo Sport explained.
iMediaEthics contacted the BBC for more information about the tweeted comments. A BBC spokesperson only said, “We don’t comment on individual staff matters but we take this very seriously and have clear standards of behaviour we expect all personnel to abide by.”
Liew told iMediaEthics, “Sadly, it’s not the first time Mr Agnew has used his position to bully or silence younger journalists. And it’s not the first time the BBC has closed ranks around one of their own, either. This is the very essence of privilege: the assumption of superiority in the face of all empirical evidence. While some have described Mr Agnew’s comments as ‘beneath him’, I would argue that this is only barely true.”