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News

Clarkson 'begs forgiveness'

47 replies

TensionWheelsCoolHeels · 02/05/2014 00:39

Guardian link

Can't help but think all the years he's gone out of his way to be as 'un-PC' as possible and laugh off the 'professionally offended' actually make his begging forgiveness sound hollow and insincere.

Live by the sword, die by the sword? Wonder how the BBC will actually deal with this one. Trying really hard not to say just about the most offensive word it's possible to say just doesn't ring true. I wonder who it was that released the clip? Someone he's offended I'll bet...

OP posts:

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claig · 02/05/2014 00:56

Agree. I don't like political correctness, but I think Clarkson is rude and boorish and has got away with it for ages. The BBC won't do anything much. They have given a warning or something.

Why doesn't Clarkson go on television and speak to a real person and interviewer and say sorry if he is sincere? A taped "begging for forgiveness" does not look good.

Also I think the "begging" is over the top and therefore comes across as insincere.

He is a good earner for the BBC so they probably won't even ask to interview him on the news or on a show or anything.

claig · 02/05/2014 00:58

If he was a UKIP candidate or donor, he would be out of the door before daybreak, but as he is a BBC high earner and mate of powerful chums, his "begging" will be the end of it.

Ohbyethen · 02/05/2014 01:01

Slightly off topic but is it just me that finds this "If he was a Ukip councillor in a private meeting I believe they would suspend or dismiss him. If he was the owner of an American basketball team he would be fined and banned. But the BBC consider themselves unaccountable on the issue of racism." UKIP mention a bit questionable? Not to mention disingenuous considering the last one I read of was removed from his post as chairman but free to continue campaigning. Anyway.

I agree it seems insincere. Smacks more of his usual 'In incredibly sorry I got told off' style of apology. Unfortunately he has been allowed to continue for so long why would he feel any accountability? He merely gets a talking to. I suspect the BBC let him because he gets a certain viewer demographic that they are keen to keep. He does seem to be very popular.

WorldWildWifeFund · 02/05/2014 01:04

Hope the twat gets sacked.

claig · 02/05/2014 01:07

Ohbyethen, it's off topic, but it is the hypocrisy. The media will give Clarkson an easy time because he is a BBC star and mate of chums. He has said lots of questionable and sometimes quite outrageous things and yet they are mainly treated as if he is a bit of lad and he barely gets a slap on the wrist for it.

claig · 02/05/2014 01:12

I think the BBC won't even ask him to appear on one of their shows so that he can apologise in front of a real interviewer who can question him. Unless, the publicity is bad and they feel they have to. I guess it might depend on whether the Daily Mail causes them to make that decision.

claig · 02/05/2014 01:24

The disgusting and despicable joke mentioned in the following BBC article should have got him fired.

But just read what the BBC said about it. Staggering.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7707641.stm

claig · 02/05/2014 01:43

I have just read the Daily Mail about this and they mention some of the other things he has said in the past that I didn't know about. Some of it is not funny at all, but rather disturbing. I don't understand how anyone could find it funny. He seems to live in a parallel universe where he finds these things funny and where he gets a slap on the wrist and is treated as a jolly good egg.

BOFster · 02/05/2014 02:01

He is being utterly disingenuous. He obviously found it hilarious to mumble the 'edgy' non-PC racist version of the rhyme, and his other version which said 'teacher' was still a dig at a group he sees as pinko lefties.

If his 'joke' hadn't pivoted on him celebrating his sniggering public schoolboy naughty racism, and was genuinely just about the nothing-to-pick-between-them choice about the cars, he could have simply have used another rhyme like "Ip dip dip, my blue ship" etc.

He's a smug self-satisfied bigot, who thinks he's untouchable.

ThatVikRinA22 · 02/05/2014 02:14

....i agree.
watch the australian you tube footage of them referred to by stuart lee.....
they are all prize twats of highest order and deserve what ever they get.

and this is why i love stuart lee.....

Pagwatch · 02/05/2014 09:49

It is hilarious though.
'I tried very hard notto say that word. I hate that word. I tried to make sure that word was not broadcast'

He could have just not said it.

What a dickhead.

HecatePropylaea · 02/05/2014 10:01

I know. "I did everything in my power to not use that word"

erm. except, well, not saying it

What he means is he did everything in his power to prevent it from becoming public knowledge that he used that word.

He comes across as an arrogant, ignorant arsehole and now it appears that he uses words that any reasonable person would assume mean that he is a racist too.

And still the bbc do nothing except defend, justify and continue on their merry way.

But considering all the things over the years that the bbc have turned a blind eye to, condoned or actually facilitated, I am not surprised.

And still it is law that we fund them.

Perhaps it is time for change. Maybe in exchange for that funding and that protection, they should be made to make some changes in the way they do things!

I know you aren't allowed in many people's eyes to criticise the holy bbc, envy of the world and all that, but I think they have a responsibility that they are failing to live up to.

AMumInScotland · 02/05/2014 10:23

Clarkson's an arse, plain and simple.

It's an unacceptable word to use. Therefore, decent people don't use it, except in the context of a serious discussion of racism. They don't find ways of 'mumbling' it as if, if it's not-quite-audible it 'doesn't count'.

He could quite easily have used another childish rhyme.

Or, if he wanted to be 'edgy' he could have said "Enny, meeny, miny, mo, catch a .... oops no, can't say that. Well anyway, about the cars..." and everyone would have known exactly which word he didn't say. Still childish, but way more believeable than 'I tried everything I could not to say it' - most of us know which word our mouth is about to come out with, and have long enough to censor it. He chose not to.

But he'll get a slap on the wrist, and his ratings won't go down. So that will be all the BBC will care.

Montegomongoose · 02/05/2014 10:37

This was being discussed at work earlier. I'm mixed race. Apparently, it's ok for black people to use the n-word. So said a white colleague.

I would be horrified if anyone in my family used this word.

Apparently it's also fine in the context of certain music.

So if its ok to use it depending on the colour of your skin, is that not racist? I'm confused by this attitude and find it patronising in the extreme.

Clarkson is a fool.

TrevaronGirl · 02/05/2014 10:50

"Live by the sword, die by the sword?"

I don't think so, he will have a wigging from some faceless BBC mandarin and that will be all. There will be no sword hanging over Clarkson.

Can anyone seriously suggest that the millions of TG viewers will boycott the show? It is too popular and too lucrative to abandon and - like it or not - the big buffoon is the star.

Costacoffeeplease · 02/05/2014 11:04

Complete twat - tried so hard not to say it - I successfully manage never to say it with no effort whatsoever

ExcuseTypos · 02/05/2014 11:11

What the heck will he have to do to get fired? It's not the first time he's proved what a cunt he can be and he should go.

(As an aside, I'm 48 and had never heard of the version he says he didn't say. I was taught "put the baby on the po". I leant it in the playground and we thought it was very rude as it said "bum". I didn't realise at all that it was origionally so offensive)

NigellasDealer · 02/05/2014 11:14

Clarkson is an arsepiece and if this gets him off TV then good.

NigellasDealer · 02/05/2014 11:14

oh i think we sung that too about the baby on the po !!

Pantone363 · 02/05/2014 11:17

He quite clearly says the n word.

I showed my DD and she hasn't heard that version before but said he sounds like he said that bad word.

slug · 02/05/2014 11:22

Interesting isn't it. If they fail to sack Clarkson, would thy then need to give Carol Thatcher her job back?

AMumInScotland · 02/05/2014 11:22

When I was a child, it had changed to "catch a Tigger by the toe", and I was a teenager before I realised there was another version. Age certainly doesn't explain why he'd think it was ok to even 'mutter' the n-word.

But I think the quote from Richard Hammond sums it up really. "Jeremy was just being Jeremy, just being himself and that's what people watch the show for, so why change it?"

This is what we expect of him. And people watch him anyway. So what impetus is for the BBC to actually do anything about it, so long as he gets the ratings?

Our license fee at work....

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thegambler · 02/05/2014 12:10

Anyone else think he's not sorry at all, just sorry for getting caught ?

Fluffy40 · 02/05/2014 12:20

He's a silly boy.

The apology was far too scripted and false, I wonder who actually wrote it... He's silly but not thick.

rabbitrisen · 02/05/2014 12:25

I lost respect for him when he had his affair.
A lot of lines are crossed by having an affair.

Before that I actually liked him or gave him the benefit of the doubt.

hmm. Richard Hammond isnt doing himself any favours now either.

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