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Search forSam Mason sacked from BBC radio Bristol
Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 08:05
Miss Mason, 40, asked for a taxi to take her 14-year-old daughter to her grandparents’ home that was not driven by someone with a turban.
The BBC said she was told to leave after making the telephone call at the weekend.
And last night it emerged that an operator at the taxi firm, Streamline Black and White, was sacked for illegally recording the conversation.
Miss Mason declined to comment when the Bristol Evening Post contacted her.
A BBC spokesman said: "Although Sam Mason's remarks were not made on-air, her comments were completely unacceptable and, for that reason, she has been informed that she will no longer be working for the BBC with immediate effect."
Former BBC Points West presenter Susan Osman, now a BBC News 24 presenter and interfaith minister, said Miss Mason was not a racist.
She said: "Sam Mason and I go back a long way. I have known her ever since HTV days, which is almost 20 years ago, and I have never known her to be a racist.
"She has overcome considerable challenges in her life and this is most unfortunate."
Miss Mason has previously battled with alcoholism, which led to prosecution before Bristol magistrates for speeding.
She was caught travelling at 65mph in a 50mph limit zone while on her way to Weston-super-Mare’s Broadway Lodge alcoholism treatment centre in 2003.
She received a second six-month ban in October that year for driving while disqualified.
She also received a community rehabilitation order after pleading guilty to driving while disqualified, having no insurance and exceeding the speed limit on the A370.
In one in-depth interview with the Bristol Evening Post, she told of how she turned to drink for a “crutch” to help her cope with life.
After working with a counsellor in alcohol rehab, the presenter was invited back to BBC Radio Bristol to fill a prime afternoon slot on September 29.
At the time she said: “I’m chuffed to bits to be joining BBC Radio Bristol and can’t wait to start having fun with all the lovely listeners.”
The following is a transcript of Sam Mason's conversation with the Bristol taxi company, printed in The Sun newspaper on Tuesday.
A transcript of the conversation records how she ordered a taxi to take her 14-year-old daughter from her Clifton house to her grandparents’ home.
Mason then says: “I know this sounds really racist, but I’m not being . . . please, don’t send anyone like, you know what I mean. An English person would be great, a female would be better.”
Operator: “We would class that as being racist. We can’t penalise the Asian drivers and just send an English one.”
Mason: “You’ve managed it before.”
Operator: “Right, OK. I don’t agree with it personally.”
Mason: “It’s not your 14-year-old girl who’s, you know, is it?”
Operator: “Yes, but that’s racist to say you don’t want an Asian driver.”
Mason: “If it were me I wouldn’t care if it had two heads, but it’s my little girl we are talking about.”
Mason is then handed to a male operator and tells him that his female colleague has “a bad attitude”.
She adds: “I work at the BBC. I’m far from racist and that uneducated woman has no right to call me one.”
She says of her daughter: “I don’t want her to turn up with a guy with a turban on, it’s going to freak her out. She’s not used to Asians.
“She’s not racist – her godparents are black.”
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