Clarkson, J
 

He's a buffoon who doesn't deserve the national status he has, but this latest hoo-hah over alleged using of the N-word seem to have been blown completely out of proportion. Obviously it's not a word that anyone should use anymore, but there seems to be such a hysteria over the use if it (despite the fact that it's commonplace in rap music) that even the unflappable Clarkson had issued a grovelling video apology. I suspect he's aiming to preserve his royalties should this media generated scandal gather further momentum.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

I agree, it was the pre PC version of a kids rhyme, its not like he directed the word at a fellow human being. But when you are an opinionated oaf, its no surprise that you make some enemies that will put the boot in given the opportunity.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

IMO the mirror are the racists in all of this for bringing this to light, and by enhancing the sound so we can all hear him mutter N.

The BBC and JC decided not to broadcast the poem/child's rhyme on the final edit.

James May tweet was cool tho

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Stuff like this p's me off. No words are inherently offensive. The offense, surely, depends on the intent and the context.
Saying the N word and calling someone the N word are entirely different things.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

I derived a certain amount of wry amusement from the fact that the online "Should Jezza be sacked?" poll on the Mirror website was running something like 79% in favour of "No". Clearly the Mirror readership is not too badly flustered by this.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

That's why I blame the mirror for throwing the whole thing out of context. They take an innocent rhyme used to pick between two vehicles and try to say that this was a racist chant of some sort, what a bunch of pricks ehh.

Must be a slow week for news

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Strange how these 'slips' just keep on happening to him.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

In a modern context its not exactly innocent, but for an old man of clarksons generation I guess its kind of hard to unlearn the "original" version.

I do get the impression though that as a seasoned media personality he knows well enough that its not a word you can or should use. Seems to me he knew that anyway and was perhaps intending to be funny or fly in the face of political correctness by mumbling the offending bit. But I guess he has apologized after the spotlight fell on this lapse, albeit after flat out denying saying it in the first place. But that just makes him an idiot, not a racist, and JC being an idiot is hardly news.

Not a sacking offence though, and if it were 95% of the other media mouthpieces out there saying it, not really newsworthy, even in a slow news week.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

What? How old do you think he is? :lol:

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Older than me. When I was a kid it was a tiger that was caught by the toe.

In terms of his attitudes I would guess he went to an all boys boarding school sometime in the mid 1950s:D but that would make him about 70, so hes clearly a throwback of some sort.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Exactly - it's all an act for publicity.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Nissan?

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Lol nice one

I think they are all guilty of taking the piss out of any country they all visit, and recently truckers, (cross Burma 2 part) than being singularly racist

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn has the N word in it 219 times!
Just saying. The "establishment" has tried to clean it up numerous times, but largely failed. A word out of context is just a word. Saying something with intent is another matter. I personally wouldn't even have joined the dots to interpret the poem or intent as racist if I hadn't read this thread. Perhaps I'm overly naïve, but I do think a bit a bit of contextual licence can be brought to bear sometimes. Plus he can be something of a provocative oaf.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

A jocular use of a form of the rhyme by a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, encouraging passengers to sit down so the plane could take off, led to a 2003 lawsuit charging the airline with intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Two versions of the rhyme were attested in court; both "Eeny meeny miny mo, Please sit down it's time to go" and "Pick a seat, it's time to go". The passengers in question were African American and stated that they were humiliated due to what they called the "racist history" of the rhyme. A jury returned a verdict in favor of Southwest and the plaintiffs' appeal was denied.[13]

Re: Clarkson, J
 

I would say that its probably very presumptuous of a white middle class middle aged person such as myself to have any opinion on what an oppressed minority would consider offensive.

If people are offended, then maybe its offensive. Of course, it seems to me that the majority of those people stating it is offensive are being offended on other peoples behalf, whether those people were actually offended or not .

Re: Clarkson, J
 

One certainty is that Jezza won't be relying on the talents of Max Clifford to handle the PR! :rofl:

Re: Clarkson, J
 

:goodpost::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Re: Clarkson, J
 

HF is set in the mid 19th century Missouri. The characters' speech is accurate (however offensive to modern ears) for that time period and geography.

Top Gear is broadcast across the world in 2014.

Therein lies the difference. The world, for better or worse, has moved on.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Well, for better!

Re: Clarkson, J
 

One would hope so ;)

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Or perhaps they are trying to ride on the back of the whole Donald Sterling LA Clippers story.

Yes Clarkson makes a lot of comments that some may find offensive, and that are definitely not PC, but I think that is one of the reasons that he and Top Gear are so popular. People are fed up of all the political correctness going on.

Yes he is being paid with taxpayers money.. but the popularity of the show could be used to argue that the taxpayers agree with his employment.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Breathtaking deduction error.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

I'm also surprised to learn that he is being paid with taxpayers' money. How so?

Re: Clarkson, J
 

ok clarkson is a dickweed ....but a friend from Scotland (same age in his 50s,a country boy )recently visited me and while we were in the local bar we were joined by a friend who just happened to be a native american..well the first words out o my friends mouth was ive never met an Indian before etc:o the whole table just stopped and stared and my native friend just said oh you must be jimmies friend from Scotland wheres your skirt.
no harm done they became good friends but if you had just walked in part through ,you would have thought RACIST. very unPC.
jimmy

Re: Clarkson, J
 

No you wouldn't, you'd just think "daft teuchter". :)

Difference is, Clarkson was not ignorant, he KNEW the term to be wrong and offensive, but still did it.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

You chose whether to be offended or not. Unfortunately, some people seem to take a lot of joy in finding things to be offended by.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

The license fee doesn't contribute to his salary?

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Even if it does, what's that got to do with the taxpayer?

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Just a symptom of the "offended society" so many people seem to inhabit these days.

Quite ridiculous that you could get offended over something that wasn't actually said and wasn't even broadcast. Then again, being from Northern Ireland, I've seen how superficial such "offence" actually is. It's just an excuse to moan, complain and pull a victim card.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

If everyone made such an outcry and put as much effort into issues that were really important, perhaps the world would be a much nicer place.

Stories of child abuse or of old folk getting neglected by there carers are forgotten as soon as they are reported, yet issues like this get blanket news coverage and drag on for weeks.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Quite true. Ironically, a few days before this there was an article about the stereotyping of black actors and presenters in the BBC, a far more important issue. It probably has received 1/100th the coverage that the Clarkson story has received.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Stories like that get buried because of pressure from above. I've seen savage articles in the online Canadian press suddenly disappear without trace.

Having a crack at Clarkson or other gobby slebs is easy and helps to fill pages in newspapers that used to report on, er, real news.

You'd probably get a full page in many papers if you submitted an article entitled: "1001 ways to cook a stoat".

Re: Clarkson, J
 

The only reason the Daily Mirror and various rent-a-gob Labour MPs wanted Jeremy Clarkson sacked is because he is a friend of David Cameron.

No other season whatsoever. Certainly nothing to do with the N-word.

If it was to do with racism, then how come Labour didn't sack their RACIST MP Jack Droney in December, when he was caught being racist in context?

Hypocrites.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Methinks that's how the tabloids work, and the tabloid culture seems particullarly rampant in the UK.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

That's a very simplistic analysis. More likely hysterical political correctness.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

+1

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Which is very common in the Labour Party.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

...and in other news, it's been reported that the Pope is Catholic.

Re: Clarkson, J
 

Indeed. Harriet Harman - Queen of PC !