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When does private banter become offensive to others?


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The issue here isn't what they said it's whether it was intended for public consumption that's the issue here. A private text message is just that - private. The content of the texts may be unsavoury but the comments are no different to what a couple of working class blokes might say to each other down their local over a pint.

 

What has working class and a pint have to do with what is or isn't deemed offensive?

 

Amazing you want your "PC freedom of speech" but when "PC freedom of speech" is used to question the content of it you get all anti-PC frothy.

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I don't think it deserves the same censure as the Andy Gray and Richard Keys publically chanting 'Get your tits out for the lads' to Claire Tomlinson

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/get-your-ts-out-for-the-lads-andy-gray-and-richard-keys-direct-sexist-chant-at-clare-tomlinson-in-new-footage-9098633.html

They believed their taunting was off camera, but was leaked.....I'm more inclined to the opinion that because Keys and Gray knew what they were doing was wrong, but did it as they thought that the camera wasn't rolling then they are less deserving of sympathy

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What has working class and a pint have to do with what is or isn't deemed offensive?

 

Amazing you want your "PC freedom of speech" but when "PC freedom of speech" is used to question the content of it you get all anti-PC frothy.

 

Would you want all your private conversations with your friends (assuming you have any) recorded and to be at risk of losing your job if someone was offended by something you said privately that was never intended for them to hear?

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What has working class and a pint have to do with what is or isn't deemed offensive?

 

Amazing you want your "PC freedom of speech" but when "PC freedom of speech" is used to question the content of it you get all anti-PC frothy.

 

Because in Rickie's world people who are working class speak in a sexist way, especially if they have a pint in front of them, and the middle classes (particularly Guardian readers), are there to censure them.

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Would you want all your private conversations with your friends (assuming you have any) recorded and to be at risk of losing your job if someone was offended by something you said privately that was never intended for them to hear?

 

Well if it was on his own private phone non of this would be public. They made the error of sending these messages using the phones provided to them by Cardiff City. If any normal person sent racist or otherwise offensive communication using works equipment they would find themselves in hot water.

 

I send messages to friends and family I wouldn't want others to see and it's usually tongue in cheek, "banter" or jokes in poor taste. So in that respect I feel sorry for these messages getting aired in the public domain but still very silly to use works equipment to send things like this.

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Would you want all your private conversations with your friends (assuming you have any) recorded and to be at risk of losing your job if someone was offended by something you said privately that was never intended for them to hear?

 

Probably not "want" it, but why would you want to say anything that could put your job at risk?

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There's a very simple rule, if someone says something it's transitory and gone the second they close their mouth, someone repeating it is subject to interpretation as they may have misheard, witnesses can be unreliable.

 

You write something down and it's there forever, anyone can see for themselves exactly what you put, even on electronic media like this forum, or text messages on a phone.

 

There are two different charges for defamation of character, slander which deals with what people say and libel which deals with what people write down, there are other differences but that's broadly it and the punishments for slander are generally less than those for libel.

 

If you want a better definition ask a lawyer.

 

So, if you want things to be considered as private communications, don't write them down on any media.

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There's a very interesting news story ongoing about the football manager Malky Mackay, who was on the verge of getting the Crystal Palace job when his former chairman at Cardiff intervened and published some private text messages Mackay sent to a colleague, which have been deemed so offensive that Mackay has now been ruled out of the job. The content of the texts can be seen on the link below;

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/cardiff-city/11047646/Malky-Mackay-texts-scandal-the-damning-evidence-discovered-by-Cardiff-chairman-Vincent-Tan.html

 

Looking at the texts in the cold light of day, they will obviously offend the PC brigade but the issue here is that they were private texts sent between two colleagues which were never intended for public scrutiny.

 

The League Manager's Association has, quite rightly, said the texts were friendly banter between friends, but it looks like the matter won't rest once the usual suspects get involved, going out of their way to be offended on behalf of other people.

 

I wonder what the forum view is on this story and why the content of private text messages ahas anything to do with anyone but the people who sent and received them?

 

Re my bold.

 

How very typical of you to have picked out that particular part of the article and ignored the rest.

Had you bothered to look beyond the part that fits your profile of wanting to be allowed to say whatever you want regardless of the feelings of others you may have discovered that the text messages were only discovered by police searching for evidence of alleged financial irregularities and possible criminal offences.

It is the allegations surrounding those latter facts that have cost him the Palace job and not the texts!

 

Looking at your post "in the cold light of day" and given your passionate approval of "free speech" without any courtesy being afforded am I free to assume that you are that dense that light actually bends around you?

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