EVERY now and then, a story has “cut-through”.
My phone will ping relentlessly as friends, family, celebs, industry types and, once, a minor royal, all demand the lowdown on a scoop.
Jermaine Jenas’s unceremonious sacking by the BBC is one such story. (Phillip Schofield’s “I’m not a groomer”/frantic vaping interview; Matt “hands, face, space” Hancock; Huw Edwards being a paedophile; and, bizarrely, Molly-Mae Hague’s dumping of Tommy Fury, are others.)
Perhaps it’s because Match Of The Day, one of the shows he will now no longer appear on, is a national institution.
And The One Show, a fluffy magazine-style entertainment programme, covers bases for those who hate football.
Whatever your televisual interest, it was hard to get away from Jermaine Jenas.
Today, you’ll be lucky to find him anywhere. Because in very W1A fashion, Aunty has gone into an absolute tailspin.
First, a huge mural in Manchester’s Media City, featuring Jermaine alongside other BBC Sport stars including Gary Lineker and Alex Scott, was hastily removed.
And today, he’s finally gone from the official One Show homepage, no longer beaming alongside Alex Jones and Roman Kemp. Instead, replaced by a generic programme logo.
As Jermaine himself said on Friday, he didn’t break any laws. I conducted the interview, and he was clearly still shell-shocked
(Presumably, some runner somewhere is feverishly looking to replace said logo with a more lively photo showing Alex Jones with someone, ANYONE, else).
Now the Corporation is said to be hastily going through the archives, randomly removing bits and pieces of Jermaine.
Probably not the bits his poor wife wants removed RN, but still.
This seems an extreme, knee-jerk and unnecessary airbrushing from history of a man who sent some dodgy sexts.
As Jermaine himself said on Friday, he didn’t break any laws. I conducted the interview, and he was clearly still shell-shocked.
Rattled, teary and a bit shaky. The Sun did not pay him.
And he could have hidden behind a bland statement on his socials, or done a contrite piece to camera on Instagram.
One where he wouldn’t have been asked, on the record, if he had broken the law by “sending any d**k pics”.
He didn’t, he insisted, calmly answering a mildly mortifying question.
He is refusing to hide from his mistakes. But the BBC is hiding him.
By deleting the former England player from its history books, they are effectively putting him in the same moralistic camp as two other erased men — Jimmy Savile and Huw Edwards.
Two actual paedophiles whom they long feted, promoted and over-paid. Indeed, Edwards was given a wage rise and kept on the payroll months after his arrest over indecent images of children.
In fact, the newsreader’s announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II remains available for all to see, deemed, as it is, a matter of historical and cultural significance.
While Jermaine’s insightful analysis of Bournemouth’s leaky back four is unlikely to be one for posterity, neither is it likely to offend or corrupt.
By deleting the former England player from its history books, they are effectively putting him in the same moralistic camp as two other erased men — Jimmy Savile and Huw Edwards
Unless, perhaps, you’re one quarter of Bournemouth FC’s leaky back four.
As one commentator observed, the BBC is suffering from a severe case of Edwards PTSD — and clearly Jermaine is the fall guy.
To be clear, what he did was wrong. Not only morally, but professionally. Only a fool, or serial philanderer, would disagree.
But until recently, time and time again BBC stars have been getting away with such bad behaviour with a mere slap on the wrist. Not a P45.
What the BBC is doing now, expunging Jermaine from history, smacks of something Kim Jong Un and his state cronies would do. Not the so-called liberal Left.
It is also creating a terrifying precedent,
And there must be a plethora of well-known people out there living in fear that their every misdemeanour will come back to haunt them.
One inappropriate WhatsApp screenshot and posted online, one drunken, flirty comment said to a colleague shared.
But in the wake of the Huw Edwards and Strictly Come Dancing scandals — with a seemingly never-ending misconduct probe continuing into the latter — the BBC simply cannot afford another mis-step.
In the case of Jermaine, they were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t.
They played safe, and perhaps more will emerge that will entirely validate their decision.
Until then, expunging Jermaine seems very cancel culture.
Whatever the truth of his firing, the way it was handled has been mildly chaotic.
An internal memo confirming his departure was sent out after The Sun broke the story,
And now the star’s lawyers have sent legal letters to the Beeb, threatening to sue.
Whatever the case, this is cancel culture. And these are worrying times for the entertainment industry at large.
OF all the problems currently going on in the world, now there’s another.
And it’s all Gen Z’s fault.
Yep, thanks to a bloke called Logan Moffitt, a man none of us will have heard of on the grounds of not being 17, or, indeed, on TikTok, there’s a global cucumber shortage.
The Canadian influencer, who has 5.5million young person followers, earnestly implores impressionable minds to “join the cucumber community”.
Now, as a result of his cucumber salads going viral, there’s a supply and demand crisis across the world.
Apparently Iceland is particularly affected.
What a time to be alive, etc.
THIS is Lidl’s new Croissant bag.
Apparently, the £50 tote is a riff of Fendi’s Baguette shoulder bag, one made famous by Carrie Bradshaw in TV’s Sex And The City.
Fans of the German supermarket are clamouring to get their hands on the thing.
Which is bewildering in itself. Is it just me, or is said croissant more, er, phallus than beige carb?
TEACHERS are being trained to “challenge” whiteness – social attitudes considered normal by white people – in class.
Guidance has been created for training courses to ensure future educators are “anti-racist”. Presumably at hefty expense to the taxpayer.
Documents state that teachers – if they happen to be white – should also get help to develop and project a “positive white identity”.
But, ultimately, this micro-managing of education, at a time when classrooms are over-crowded and teachers over-worked (or at least that’s what every teacher I’ve ever known tells me), it would be nice if things could go back to basics.
Instead of books being taken off the curriculum because the author once said a nasty thing, or other PC agendas being shoved down kids’ throats, perhaps schools could, ya know, focus on the good ol’ fashioned three Rs – reading, writing and arithmetic.
If they need to be taught not to be racist, they really shouldn’t be teachers. End of.
PROOF that divorce ain’t all bad . . . Oasis are reforming.
With a not-so-cheap split from his ex, Sara MacDonald, a 50million quid reunion package for Noel has presumably eased said heartache nicely.
MOBILE network EE says parents shouldn’t buy smartphones for kids under 11.
And if phones are to be given, they must only be allowed devices that solely make calls and send texts.
Absolutely right.
Youngsters are losing both their innocence and their ability to connect with human beings faster than ever – more needs to be done to let children be children.
SO, after weeks of frenzied speculation, Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from Ben Affleck. Touchingly, on their second anniversary.
Testament to their acting skills, we’ve all seen this coming for weeks.
