mo_rizwan
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Martin Bashir, famous for nodding sympathetically at both Diana, Princess of Wales and Michael Jackson, has apologised after making a series of sexist remarks to a room full of American journalists.
The British television presenter has been forced into a grovelling apology after joking that he was surrounded by a host of “Asian babes” during an after-dinner speech to the Asian American Journalists Association.
Looking around the room in Chicago during the organisation’s annual gala banquet last week, Bashir said: “I’m happy to be in the midst of so many Asian babes. In fact, I’m happy that the podium covers me from the waist down.”
Not content with offending the assembled professionals just once, Bashir went on to say that a speech should be “like a dress on a beautiful woman - long enough to cover the important parts and short enough to keep your interest, like my colleague Juju’s”.
The audience began to boo and Juju Chang, who is a fellow television presenter on the ABC channel, retorted: “See what I have to put up with?”
Bashir, 45, was publicly rebuked by his network bosses before writing a letter of apology to the association.
“Upon reflection, it was a tasteless remark that I now bitterly regret,” he wrote. “I am grateful to you for the opportunity to address those present, and hope that the continuing work of the organisation will not be harmed or undermined by my moment of stupidity.”
Jeffrey Schneider, a spokesman for ABC on which Bashir hosts the news documentary show 20/20, told reporters: “This kind of remark has no place in any setting, and Martin knows that and is truly sorry for his serious error in judgment.”
Bashir moved to the United States four years ago to cash in on his famous in-depth television interviews with Diana, Princess of Wales, and Jackson, which were broadcast in the US as well as the UK.
He first came to prominence after interviewing Diana about her failed marriage for Panorama in 1995. Referring to Camilla Parker Bowles, she told him: “There were three of us in this marriage.”
In 2003, he interviewed Michael Jackson and the controversial documentary, Living with Michael Jackson, led to the pop star being charged with molesting one of the boys featured in the programme.
Jackson was later acquitted and filmed his own response to Bashir’s interview, accusing him of editing the tapes in a sensationalist manner.
Source: Times Online
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