Media Watchdog OfCom has fined TalkSport a neat twenty grand for that previously reported incident in which presenter James Whale encouraged listeners to vote for Boris Johnson in the run up to the London mayoral election. The comments breached the media regulator's strict impartiality rules.
OfCom said in a statement: "The presenter directly encouraged listeners to vote for Boris Johnson in the upcoming London mayoral elections and criticised Ken Livingstone. Breaches of this nature have the potential to cause considerable harm to the democratic process by conferring an unfair electoral advantage on a particular candidate".
Whale was fired over the incident back in May. He initially took legal action against his dismissal, but later dropped that action, saying he didn't have the funds to pursue it.
OfCom's response to the Whale incident is possibly more severe because of a previous ruling against TalkSport after another former presenter George Galloway announced on air his intention to run against a government minister in the next General Election. OfCom added: "It was the second time within eight months that the station breached the code's due impartiality requirements ... TalkSport could and should have taken more action to ensure more robust compliance both before and on the date of [Whale's] broadcast".
Whale, who has already got another job for London talk station LBC, told The Guardian he was surprised he wasn't consulted in OfCom's investigation of the incident, while adding that he stood by his original claim he wasn't in the wrong. He said: "I am amazed that the one person who has never been spoken to in all of this is me. I have moved on from the situation. I am also surprised that more people have not been found wanting. I can assure you that it was never my intention to influence anyone more than people would normally be influenced by reading or listening to the media. Talk radio always works with a delay. And if the producers of the station are not happy with what you do there is the facility to remove it".