Tag: Jeremy Clarkson

  • Guest post: To keep the liberal-tweaking going

    Originally a comment by Morgan on Brendan O’Neill is broken-hearted over Clarkson.

    Just as you or I would be sacked if we walloped a co-worker, especially someone below us in the pecking order, so Clarkson deserves the boot too, says his army of haters in the media and on Twitter.
    Please. If this were a simple punishment-for-physicality issue, why has so much of the Clarkson-baiting commentary obsessed over what Clarkson thinks and says?

    Well..
    a) Because the only reason anyone’s arguing Clarkson shouldn’t be fired is because they like what he thinks and says, or enjoy that others don’t.
    b) Because “he should have been sacked long ago for being a vile shit, and his employers’ and fans’ reluctance to call him on his bad behaviour is the reason it reached the point where he assaulted a subordinate” is a very obvious yet worthwhile point to make.
    c) Even if those calling for his sacking have the most impure of motives, the point in the first paragraph quoted is still completely valid and sufficient.

    O’Neill is essentially arguing that Clarkson should have total immunity from any consequences for anything he does, because he annoys people O’Neill dislikes. It’s the BBC’s duty to feed him as many coworkers as he wants to assault, to keep the liberal-tweaking going, it seems.

  • Funny man with great expertise and huge following

    There’s a list of people who defended Jeremy Clarkson because hey who doesn’t punch an underling in the face now and then?

    David Cameron is one. His kids like the show. That’s the important thing.

    Rupert Murdoch is one. On Twitter he shyly offered his support:

    How stupid can BBC be in firing Jeremy Clarkson? Funny man with great expertise and huge following.

    That’s the formula then? If you’re

    • a man
    • funny
    • expert
    • hugely popular

    you’re allowed to punch people in the face at work? Well all right then. Rules are rules.

    Snoop Dogg is one.

    Snoop Dogg told the Sun earlier this week: “He isn’t part of Top Gear – he IS Top Gear.

    “If they even think about firing him, Britain needs to boycott the BBC until he is reinstated.”

    More than a million other people are that many more.

    More than 1million people have signed political blogger Guido Fawkes’ Change.org petition calling on the BBC to reinstate Clarkson. Reasons for signing include “Jeremy is a bastion of light in a dark PC world” and “I hate the BBC lefties”.

    Yeah. It’s such a lefty PC bullshit thing to say tv stars can’t punch their underlings. Where did all the balls go? Huh? Is everybody emasculated around here? Whither the cojones? Is it just pussies running everything now? Where’s my trigger warning? This may be politically incorrect but I say hit everybody in the face! Hitting people in the face is what made this country great! God bless you and God bless America.

  • The abuse contained the strongest expletives

    The BBC has finally sacked Jeremy Clarkson, and it tells us (up to a point) what the “fracas” was. (Note, by the way, the self-serving word. People do love to do that – use the passive voice with no agent [“what happened” “what was said”] and mild words in place of accurate ones. “Fracas” – it sounds like 18th century gents quarreling over ale in Sam Johnson’s sitting room. “Fracas” is cozy for “that time I punched and shouted at and threatened someone.” The word is “assault” at the very least.) (I’m well aware that millions of people must have already said all that. I wanted to say it anyway.)

    In a statement from BBC Director General Tony Hall we’ve learned exactly what took place on that night in a North Yorkshire hotel.

    A report has been published with blow-by-blow details of what happened in the now infamous “fracas” between Mr Clarkson and one [of] his producers, Oisin Tymon.

    This is one time (and not the only time) when the famous BBC scare quotes are well chosen.

    The scene is the patio of a hotel in North Yorkshire on the evening of a long day of shooting and travel.

    • The physical attack lasted around 30 seconds and was only halted by the intervention of a witness.
    • Mr Tymon did not retaliate.
    • The verbal abuse was directed at Mr Tymon more than once – both during the attack and subsequently inside the hotel.
    • The abuse contained the strongest expletives and threats to sack him.
    • The abuse was at such volume it could be heard in the dining room and the shouting was audible in a hotel bedroom.

    The “strongest epithets” – well there’s only one really. It’s that one that we’re always told is in no way denigrating of women, because it’s what men call other men. Clarkson repeatedly called Tymon a cunt.

    I suspect that Jeremy Clarkson isn’t a very nice man.