By that, I mean the British public broadcaster displayed breathtakingly bad judgment in airing an episode broadcast by two of its comedy stars.
Comedian Russell Brand has quit his BBC radio show hours after the British broadcaster suspended him for a controversial routine he put to air earlier this month.
Brand, 33, and well-known BBC radio host Jonathan Ross, 47, recently left lewd messages on the answering machine of actor Andrew Sachs, 78, with Ross claiming that Brand had slept with the actor's granddaughter.
Those messages were then broadcast on Oct. 18, as part of Brand's nationally broadcast radio show.
Ross was making a guest appearance on Brand's show during the offending broadcast.
The BBC has since received 18,000 complaints from members of the public and has heard criticism from Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
In a statement released Wednesday, BBC director general Mark Thompson called the prank phone calls a "gross lapse of taste" on the part of the suspended radio hosts, which resulted in "a completely unacceptable broadcast."
Ah, but this "gross lapse of taste" didn't go out live.
CTV's Tom Kennedy reported from London that the BBC made the decision to broadcast even after Sachs had requested it not do so.
Here's the BBC's story.
And here's the Guardian's story for today:
Russell Brand last night quit his Radio 2 show while Jonathan Ross battled to save his job as the BBC was engulfed by panic over the fallout from a phone prank gone badly wrong.
As executives fretted about the possible impact on the BBC's future and teetered on the brink of civil war, furious director general Mark Thompson was considering whether the corporation should make a wholesale retreat from the brand of edgy comedy in which the pair specialise.