The BBC has been falsely accused of homophobia during its commentary of Andy Murray’s quarter final match at Wimbledon.
The commentator praised Murray’s opponent, David Ferrer, for making “three manly points, now a couple of game points” – meaning Ferrer had a chance to win the game over the next two points.
But some viewers thought the commentator had said “gay points” and complained to the BBC about homophobic hatred.
Complain
Listen to the comment on the BBC iPlayer here (available until 11 July 2012).
One complaint claimed it was an “outrageous example of hate speech”.
People also took to social networking site Twitter to complain. One comment said: “Did this halfwit tennis commentator just refer to points as ‘manly’ and ‘gay’?
Another said: “Wait .. he actually said ‘3 manly points followed by 3 gay ones?’
While a third commented: “Good to know it wasn’t just me who heard Bouncy say ‘3 manly points from Ferrer, now 2 gay points’ (he meant game points, I’m sure!)”
But the complainants were mistaken.