BBC presenter Graham Norton has said that free speech shouldn’t be “consequence free” and that cancel culture is a way of holding people to account.
Speaking at a literary festival, Norton criticised the actor John Cleese for taking a stand against cancel culture. According to The Telegraph:
The host of The Graham Norton Show on BBC One argued that free speech should not be “consequence free”, stating that “cancelling” people is better described as holding them to account.
Norton has taken aim at Cleese, branding him a “man of a certain age” who is suddenly facing this accountability and complaining about it.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival Norton said of “cancel” culture: “The word is the wrong word. I think the word should be ‘accountability’.
“John Cleese has been very public recently about complaining about what you can’t say.
“It must be very hard to be a man of a certain age who’s been able to say whatever he likes for years, and now suddenly there’s some accountability.”
The 59-year-old added: “It’s free speech, but not consequence free. I’m aware of the things I say.”
