Carol Thatcher race row: thousands complain to BBC
BBC defends dropping Carol Thatcher over 'golliwog' jibe

It seems that the BBC can do nothing right in recent months, with a string of incidents ranging from the trivial to the justifiably downright reckless being systematically analysed and torn to pieces by the predominantly right-wing newspaper press, although the handling of such crises within the BBC hasn't exactly been smooth running either.

What doesn't help matters is the fact that nearly all newspapers are currently locked in a deadly spiral of falling circulations and declining ad revenue, which means that they end up amplifying each and every minor incident like an echo chamber; this is particularly relevant for newspapers with an anti-BBC agenda, whatever its nature or reasoning may be.

Of course despite the golliwog representing an affectionate, non-racist symbol of nostalgia for many people - and deemed no longer relevant by presumably the vast majority of young black people - it's the underlying relevance and attitude that's possessed by some people above a certain age that is the key here.

Add into the equation a very complex mix of class, racial, generational and cultural divisions and you end up with a situation that's impossible for the BBC to satisfy everyone at the same time, therefore any decision will inevitably end up having its supporters and opponents.

Then there's the return of the "public place" argument that was ironically used in the context of John Barrowman when he 'exposed' himself during a radio broadcast, namely the expectation that what you do on BBC premises somehow becomes public property even if it's never seen or heard publicly.

In the Carol Thatcher case, the dimension of editorial judgement (namely her 'suitability' for factual programming) based on the nature of the incident and its potential to offend certain groups of society may have been the overriding factor this time, but there's still a nagging suspicion that the punishment was indeed too much for the 'crime'.

The person who recruited Carol Thatcher for The One Show presumably did so with some expectation that given her politics, family history and cultural background there might be the potential for a future gaffe even if it was to be of a political nature, and if that was genuinely the case then that risk should have been accounted for in the nature of the punishment.

However if this risk was deemed to be unacceptable under the circumstances, then surely the person who decided to recruit her in the first place should also be appropriately reprimanded for a lack of judgment on this basis alone.

Problem is, if the BBC keeps sacking people based on what they say and do, you get to the point when a person's career could be ruined on the basis of a misheard and misappropriated remark. What if the next incident involved comments of a political nature which were initially dismissed as 'fantasy' but subsequently turned out to have basis in fact?

And what effect will any of this have on investigative political journalism and 'cutting-edge' comedy? Will BBC employees end up being too afraid to say anything remotely controversial just incase the remark(s) might be construed by someone somewhere as being offensive to them?

On this occasion I'm willing to give the BBC the benefit of the doubt on another very tight editorial decision, but with a plea for BBC management and staff to gain and retain a proper sense of perspective for judging and punishing each and every incident in question.

Even when the Daily Mail is baying at your door.