Ex-BBC newsreader Michael Buerk has criticised TV bosses who hire “another six Asians… another six lesbians or… another six pensioners” simply to appear politically correct.
The comments were made during an interview with Miriam O’Reilly, who took the BBC to court in an age discrimination case and won after being sacked from the Countryside programme. The interview is due to be shown on tonight’s ITV1 Tonight programme.
Buerk, who has previously come under fire for comments about the BBC’s management being too female-dominated, also told O’Reilly: “If you’ve been hired because you are young and pretty, because you are mincingly camp, because you’ve ticked a particular ethnic box and then you are no younger young and pretty or the fashions have moved on and you suddenly don’t have a job – get over it. It’s showbusiness.”
Photo © Rex Features
