Why Alan Brazil Should Shut Up

talksport

 

I was very saddened to learn of the death of Robin Williams. The movie star helped shape my life with his great roles, his humour continually saw me crying with laughter. That said I didn’t imagine I would comment on his death on this blog.

Yet former football turned radio presenter Alan Brazil changed all that with his disgraceful comments on the Williams suicide during his morning show on Talksport.

He gave his audience the rundown on how he heard the news.

Describing on how he thought it was Robbie Williams originally…

“And then when she said ‘Robin’, I thought, ‘Oh, OK’. It didn’t hit me hard like it would if it had been Robbie, thank God it wasn’t.”

See why bring the whole Robbie story up? It wasn’t relevant and by suggesting his life is in some way worth more than the actors is just crass.

Alan Brazil then clearly showed he knew nothing of Robin’s family and their situation when he said…

“I believe he’s got a daughter as well, what’s she feeling like this morning?”

The truth is Williams had three children. All of them will be devastated as they’ve lost their dear father.

But Mr Brazil would continue even when he was clearly being ushered away from the sensitive topic by his co-host Brian Moore.

“I don’t have a lot of sympathy, I’m sorry.” 

“What you leave behind is diabolical, I’m really annoyed about that.”

Now Brazil attempted to justify his comments by stating that was his opinion and he was entitled to it. True, until you remind him that it’s not his job to give his opinions without filters. Oh and by the way Alan, mind that girl (Zelda Williams Robin’s daughter) you were concerned about earlier in your conversation and the two boys you forgot about? Well I bet they aren’t feeling great at all. They have just lost their dad. So how does your ‘no sympathy’ quote sit with them?

The ‘no sympathy’ remark is one of the most disgusting pieces of broadcasting I’ve ever heard. See during my journalism Uni days I was told you never assume your audience know/feel the same way you do.

The way he dismissed suicide is extremely irresponsible. In this day in age, we should all know that mental health issues like depression are an illness and a dangerous one at that! Now we should be free to talk about it and hope that we can get more people to engage and talk about their thoughts and feelings. What we certainly don’t need is radio/TV ‘personalities like Alan Brazil dismissing it and offering nothing but negative thoughts. Just think if someone suffering from severe depression was listening to the Talksport breakfast show yesterday. Would they be more inclined to talk about their feelings or would they think it was better to keep it to themselves and not get criticised like Robin Williams was?

Alan Brazil totally forget about professional broadcasting and neglected his audience. This is clearly why Talksport felt the need to come out and apologise on his behalf and make it clear that they didn’t agree with his opinions. The radio station has proven it’s lowly reputation is well founded too. Because no one helped the co-host steer Alan Brazil away from making a total cock of himself and the station. The producer should have cut to an ad break and get Brazil off the air or to apologise immediately.

Now say you work as a professional broadcaster and you need to handle tragic news that is a national/international news story. The best thing to do, if you feel negative about it, is say condolences to his family and move on. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to work it out. For a man with over 20 years experience in the media to say what you said, even after a heated discussion outside the studio and your co-host clearly trying to get you to stop is both ridiculous and idiotic. That is why Talksport should have suspended you for at least for a few weeks and made you do a media refreshers class.

Plus what kind of man can’t feel any sympathy for someone who would take their own life like Robin Williams did? Just think about those last ten minutes of that poor mans life and how desperate he was to die and be away from his suffering. He had a disease and it wrecked his mind. I too have suffered from depression, I have thought about killing myself but luckily not to the extent Robin Williams did. I was always able to get to a better place, I am very luck and grateful for that! Its not something we can dismiss. If you truly have no sympathy for the way his life ended then I have sympathy for you Alan Brazil for being a cold, loveless human being that lacks compassion.

Robin Williams

To Robin Williams thank you for the memories and the laughs. 

‘O Captain My Captain’ 

 

One Response to “Why Alan Brazil Should Shut Up”

  1. Hi

    I was quite offended by Alan’s (Brazil) put down, towards Sandy his colleague. Not as much by Brazil’s Robin Williams suicide commentary. Suffering with mental illness in no way prevents me from choosing not to take responsibility for the things I say and do.

Leave a Reply