Kate Garraway has found herself on the receiving end of some well-deserved criticism after describing Jonathan Ross as “rather brave” for publicly addressing the allegations against David Walliams and Russell Brand’s criminal conviction.

Brave? For issuing a statement distancing himself from two former friends? That’s quite a generous interpretation of bravery, especially considering the women who came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct.

For those unfamiliar with Garraway, she’s a longtime presenter of ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the British morning television programme formerly co-hosted by Piers Morgan. So Garraway certainly knows how to scrutinise a public figure’s words. Which makes her defence of Ross particularly interesting.

Ayesha Hazarika Wasn’t Having It

During Thursday’s broadcast, Garraway clashed with Baroness Ayesha Hazarika, a Labour peer and political commentator, over Ross’s statement.

Ross had expressed horror at allegations involving Walliams and the crimes of Russell Brand, insisting he had been unaware of their conduct.

Russell Brand received a 10-year-and-six-month prison sentence on 9 November after a jury convicted him of rape and three counts of sexual assault. Meanwhile, a joint investigation by The Guardian and ITV News published allegations that Walliams used his celebrity status to pursue teenage girls and young women. Walliams denies the allegations and has not been charged.

Garraway defended Ross, describing him as a close friend and praising him for speaking publicly. Hazarika wasn’t buying Ross’s explanation. She pointed to a 2007 episode of The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, where Ross, Russell Brand and Noel Fielding participated in a discussion involving crude jokes about sexual violence in front of Lily Allen.

For Hazarika, the clip illustrated a comedy culture that treated women’s discomfort as entertainment. The exchange became heated as Garraway interrupted Hazarika while defending Ross’s explanation of an old joke.

The Old Jokes Aren’t Looking So Funny Anymore

The controversy centres partly on Ross’s appearance at the 2004 British Comedy Awards, when he joked that the awards ceremony, celebrating its 15th anniversary, was like a drunken teenager who might end up going home with David Walliams.

Ross now says the awards show’s writers supplied the joke and that he believed it exaggerated Walliams’s reputation for dating younger women. He acknowledges that the joke was tasteless and insists he would never knowingly have maintained a friendship with someone engaging in such conduct.

There is no established evidence that Ross knew about Walliams’s alleged misconduct. But Hazarika’s argument raises a different question: Why did so many people in British entertainment consider jokes about sexual aggression acceptable?

And let’s not forget Ross’s involvement in the notorious 2008 Sachsgate scandal. Ross and Brand left sexually explicit messages on actor Andrew Sachs’s answering machine concerning Brand’s relationship with Sachs’s granddaughter, Georgina Baillie. The scandal sparked widespread outrage, and the BBC suspended Ross for three months. He later apologised.

That wasn’t something Ross merely witnessed. He participated.

Since When Is Issuing a Statement an Act of Bravery?

We can acknowledge that Jonathan Ross condemned the allegations without handing him a medal for doing so. The women who came forward, knowing the public scrutiny and professional consequences they might face, demonstrated far more courage than a famous television presenter issuing a statement.

What makes Garraway’s defence so frustrating is her determination to protect Ross while Ayesha Hazarika was trying to address the culture that allowed men to humiliate women and call it entertainment.

And Garraway isn’t the only female presenter rushing to defend powerful men. Remember when Kay Burley sat alongside Jeffrey Epstein survivor Lisa Phillips on Newsnight and decided that, just as the discussion turned to encouraging other victims to come forward, everyone needed reminding that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was a “war hero”? Because that was clearly the priority.

Ross deserves a fair assessment of what he knew, but calling him brave for condemning conduct he denies knowing about completely misses the point. What do you think?

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