Katie Price hits out at Channel 4 chief
Katie Price said the boss of Channel 4 showed "a lack of judgment" after he defended the organisation over jokes made by comedian Frankie Boyle regarding her disabled son Harvey. The former glamour model has written to David Abraham in reply to his open letter to her in which he defended the channel's stance on disability portrayal and perceptions of disability. Last week, media regulator Ofcom ruled Channel 4 breached broadcasting guidelines as a result of Frankie's jokes. It received hundreds of complaints about the comments aired on his series Tramadol Nights. In her letter, the former glamour model compared the channel to a man who defended telling racist jokes by saying he had "a black friend". She said: "The fact that Channel 4 broadcasts positive material about disability does not mean that you have not been guilty of broadcasting discriminatory material on this occasion and that you should address the situation and apologise. "That you cleared this material for broadcast shows a lack of judgment that cannot be acceptable." She also asked whether it was appropriate the channel, which will broadcast the 2012 Paralympics, should be "led by a man who sanctioned comments that have been held to demean an eight-year-old disabled child". In his letter, Mr Abraham told Katie: "I would like to reassure you that we never set out to offend or cause distress to your son."
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.