A clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones
Jeremy Clarkson broke a record:
Jeremy Clarkson’s Sun newspaper column, in which he said he “hated” the Duchess of Sussex, has become the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s most complained about article, the regulator has said.
Ipso said the piece, which was removed from the Sun’s website on Monday at Clarkson’s request, had received more than 17,500 complaints as of 9am on Tuesday.
…
The number surpassed the total number of complaints the media regulator received in 2021, 14,355.
A whole year’s worth of complaints. That’s impressive.
More than 60 cross-party MPs have written to the Sun’s editor, Victoria Newton, to demand an apology and “action taken” against Clarkson for the column where he said Meghan should be paraded through the streets naked.
People are so politically correct these days. If an angry bullying man can’t take to the newspapers to say a woman should be dragged through the streets naked and pelted with shit, what are we coming to?
In their letter, they said Meghan had received credible threats to her life and that columns such as Clarkson’s contributed to an “unacceptable climate of hatred and violence”.
The letter, coordinated by the Conservative chair of the women and equalities select committee, Caroline Nokes, was signed by Tory, Labour, Lib Dem, Green and SNP MPs, including the Conservative chair of the Treasury select committee, Harriett Baldwin, Labour’s Harriet Harman and Caroline Lucas of the Green party.
That’s good. It’s good that they all get it.
The Sun has since withdrawn the column at the request of Clarkson, but a statement from him promising to be more careful in future has been criticised for not including an apology.
Also what about the Sun? It published that disgusting outburst instead of spiking it and firing Clarkson.
In their letter, Nokes and the other MPs tell Newton they “condemn in the strongest possible terms the violent misogynist language … This sort of language has no place in our country and it is unacceptable it was allowed to be published in a mainstream newspaper.”
What I’m saying. Bad that Clarkson wrote it and bad that the Sun published it.
After widespread outcry over the weekend, Clarkson issued a statement on Monday, saying: “Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it. In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people. I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.”
Ohhhhhh fuck off. Cowardly weasel. He didn’t “rather put his foot in it old bean.” This isn’t fucking Jeeves and Wooster. Isn’t it interesting that he doesn’t actually admit what he did, just burbles about “a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones.” He’s a sadistic bully and he’s a coward. Nice brew.
Nokes said it was “not an apology” and tweeting the letter said: “I welcome Jeremy Clarkson’s acknowledgment that he has caused hurt … but an editorial process allowed his column to be printed unchallenged.”
That. Let’s have the Sun’s apology, eh?
What a weird defense. I don’t doubt that Clarkson was intending to allude to Cersei Lannister’s “walk of atonement” in Game of Thrones. But that doesn’t make it any better.
For those not familiar with the show or the books, Cersei is not a terribly admirable character. Although some of her bitterness is an understandable reaction to being a woman in a society that treats even the most highborn, privileged women as bargaining chips and breeding stock, she’s still very twisted. Without getting into spoilers, she’s responsible for quite a few crimes, murders, and high treasons. But when she is arrested and imprisoned by the Westerosi equivalent of the Catholic church, it’s not really her worst crimes that they’re concerned with. The equivalent of the “Pope” basically allows her to plea bargain to doing a walk of atonement for the charge of adultery in exchange for the other more serious charges being dropped. This ritual is so humiliating and filled with vile misogynist abuse from a citizenry that is delighted with the opportunity to stick it to highborn woman who got uppity, that most viewers/readers actually end up feeling sympathetic to her at least for that scene. A plot summary is here if you want to know more.
Even her worst critics can’t claim that Markle has done anything approaching Cersei’s crimes. So openly fantasizing about a woman being punished in that fashion isn’t improved by the literary reference; if anything, it’s worse.
I dunno. This whole trans/woke thing has me really leery of calling for someone’s firing on the basis of writing or speech, regardless of how detestable said words are.
I hold the editorial chain of command in greater contempt because they should know better. The writer can plead “heat of the moment anger,” or “just getting things off my chest.” Fine. Leave it as a diary entry. Editors should be a more thoughtful and less reflexive bunch.
I didn’t exactly call for Clarkson’s firing; I upbraided the Sun for not spiking his piece and firing him. A tiny distinction, to be sure.
I don’t know. I think if a gender critical guy wrote in the Guardian that he wanted to see Elliot Page, formerly Ellen of that ilk, dragged naked through the streets with shit thrown at her and people screaming “Shame!!” I would be just about as disgusted and would think the Guardian should fire him.
There is something offputting and unsavory about people who fantasize about punishing their enemies in these over-the-top ways. It’s fine to wish for lawful punishment, like Trump being held responsible for his crimes, and I won’t fault people for wanting to take a little schadenfreude in some might-technically-be-legal-but-not-really-appropriate (not to mention unlikely) fantasies about him being hauled out of Mar-a-Lago in handcuffs.
But the kind of thing Clarkson is doing, or people fantasizing about alleged criminals being raped in prison, or that weird fantasy some asshole posted during the Deep Rifts about skeptics and atheists he deemed too “woke” being frog-marched through the streets and made to bow before the holy Dawkins and beg forgiveness or whatever (seriously, anyone else remember this? It was bizarre), is just gross. It says a lot about the speaker and nothing about the object of their hate.
And yes, any editor worth his or her salt should have spiked the piece and saved Clarkson from himself.
Very much so.
I do sometimes lapse into wishing public humiliations on Trump. I think that’s because he does so much of it to other people, with so much glee and venom. I can’t help longing to see him get just a taste of what he dishes out. It’s still wrong though.