Looks like JC is bulletproof (pardon the pun)
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16183485
(This thread follows on from Unison calling for the sacking of Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson)
Volume 1 is here
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 16 Dec 11 at 00:34
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The Scottish Labour MP questioning Fat Pang and Mark Thompson made an extremely poor impression on me. Setting aside the question of his sincerity, banging on and on about the awfulness of saying, even in jest, that people should be shot in front of their families suggests two things:
One is that a joke isn't a joke if it isn't a left-wing joke. That's completely idiotic because no joke ideological or not is any good unless it is funny. And if it is funny, its political slant doesn't matter much, anyway to someone who gets the joke.
The other thing, more serious because there are impressionable people out there who might listen to MPs, is the implication that the joke is especially sinister. That implies in turn that people being taken out and shot in front of their families is the sort of thing that might happen here.
The joke itself was in dubious taste I suppose although quite funny (it's the way he tells 'em). The hostile response to it in my opinion is despicable, truly disgusting and malevolent. A lot of innocents have been swept along by it though. Mark Thompson revealed that the BBC had had 32,000 complaints.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Thu 15 Dec 11 at 01:54
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Quite. I'd be embarrassed to complain so self-righteously about a joke in bad taste - and I've heard far worse.
On the other side of the argument (and there isn't much) the feeble minded, of which there is a good supply, can sometimes get swept along and start cheering at suggestions like Clarkson's.
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I just don't get how anyone can be offended by anything. Nothing would offend me other than a (false) accusation that I was dishonest or had failed to keep my word.
Being offended is just an act. And the only measure of whether something said as a joke is acceptable or not is whether it is funny.
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>> Mark Thompson revealed that the BBC had had 32,000 complaints.
I wonder how many letters/emails/phone calls they had supporting the comments though?
Trouble is, people are always quick in complaining, but not offering praise.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 15 Dec 11 at 10:35
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>> >> Mark Thompson revealed that the BBC had had 32,000 complaints.
>>
>> I wonder how many letters/emails/phone calls they had supporting the comments though?
>>
I would be interested to see a graph of the number of complaints against time.
This might show how long it took for some to react ( after an eprod?) to this event.
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It is politics...pure and simple.
The Left didn't like someone poking fun at their strike...so they lashed out in the best way they could.
There is no way on this earth that 32,000 people were truly offended at Clarkson's comments, which were said in jest, the Left have mobilised a load of folk to complain to make a point. Whether or not anyone agrees with his humour, it was still humour. Get over it.
If anything, these politicised union types or MP's have done their cause harm, because of the ridiculousness of their stance...meanwhile in other parts of the world people are actually being shot.
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The widespread access to email makes it easy to complain.
I wonder how many complaints there would have been had everyone had to sit down, write a letter, put it in an envelope, address it, and post it.
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>> I wonder how many complaints there would have been
I wonder how many of the complainers bothered to listen to the whole clip and work out the true angle.
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The unions missed a chance far better would have dismissed as a silly schoolboy joke and got on with theor overpaid jobs
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>> The unions missed a chance far better would have dismissed as a silly schoolboy joke
>> and got on with theor overpaid jobs
>>
+1
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Clarkson remarks take them with a pinch of salt who cares anyway.He can stop entertaining today and retire in comfort.
I'm not sure about overpaid jobs daughter is a mental health nurse 25 grand a year she had no pay rise for two years.Overpaid don't think so.
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I'm not sure about overpaid jobs daughter is a mental health nurse 25 grand a year she had no pay rise for two years.Overpaid don't think so
Not a dig at the ordinary bods at the coalface but a dig at the brothers who run the union for fat pay-packets and pensions.
E.G.
Dave Prentis
Born 1950
Leeds, England
Occupation Trade union leader
Salary £92,187 salary [1
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Well paid salary R.P. He has a excellent education so has my son in law who has a masters and earns as a social worker just over 30 grand.I see you'r point.
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"meanwhile in other parts of the world people are actually being shot."
Many union members in other countries have been shot just for being part of a union.
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>> Many union members in other countries have been shot just for being part of a union.
Yes. And they still are being.
One of those countries is the US where you can be killed or savagely beaten for organizing or joining a union, but also for not joining one.
Western Civilization, Freedom and Democracy: they are all a bit patchy.
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>> >> Many union members in other countries have been shot just for being part of
>> a union.
>>
>> Yes. And they still are being.
>>
Undoubtedly so....but... it doesn't mean we have to become humourless or intolerant to other people's humour, in this country.
Does anyone who complained truly believe that Clarkson actually wanted striking workers shot?...I'd suggest 'no'.
Did anyone who complained become irritated at a public figure on t.v. ridiculing a subject that they hold dear...I'd suggest 'yes'.
Well instead of trying to stifle that debate (or humour), they should be glad they live in a democracy where there is free speech and people can join unions...and allow those that don't hold that subject dear to ridicule it if they so wish..is that not what being free is about?
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It's simpler than that in a way Westpig. Because of his poses of ill-mannered xenophobia, sexism, right-wingery and so forth, and because he revels (rather vulgarly sometimes, but who wouldn't) in Toadmobiles, snorting monsters of every sort especially thirsty ones, he has cast himself as a hate figure to all but the most sophisticated of 'lefties' in the broadest sense. To many people he represents all that is bad, and they particularly hate his popularity and success. They really think he's a bad influence.
Of course as any fule no most of that is a pose. Clarkson is a rumbustious chattering classes member and undoubtedly has friends of all political persuasions. But it's hard for high-profile performers like him to keep their private lives private.
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Actually there is an aspect of Top Gear that must grate with a lot of people as it does with me: its 'muscular aspirationism', the suggestion, sometimes explicitly advanced by all the presenters but especially Clarkson, and in any case implicit in the programme's format, that if you haven't got the bread you're not in the game, that decent motors are for the well-off.
While this is transparently true, we paupers don't always like our noses being rubbed in it.
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>> To many people he represents all that is bad, and they particularly hate his popularity
>> and success. They really think he's a bad influence.
>>
That's my point. They don't like him, so have taken action to try to curb his speech. Just because he doesn't have the same viewpoint they have. Not nice is it.
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>> Well instead of trying to stifle that debate (or humour), they should be glad they
>> live in a democracy where there is free speech and people can join unions...and allow
>> those that don't hold that subject dear to ridicule it if they so wish..is that
>> not what being free is about?
Shut up, sit down and be grateful for what you've got? Bit of an establishment line isn't it?
Seriously though Jezza's joke wasn't about shooting strikers but about balance at the beeb. Mildly silly to talk about shooting strikers when their kiddies might be watching but that's the producers fault for being daft enough to have Clarkson on.
Rather good monologue on the subject on last Friday's Now Show.
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>> Shut up, sit down and be grateful for what you've got? Bit of an establishment
>> line isn't it?
I see it more as 'be a bit more tolerant', in that if someone else's viewpoint or humour doesn't match yours, then so be it. Put up with it.
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I view it like this . In a democracy, most people have a Government for half their lives that they did not vote for. (If they voted Labour or Conservative that is - substitute ALL their lives if they vote LD or any third party).
So tolerance of opposing views is essential.
Last edited by: madf on Fri 16 Dec 11 at 08:30
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Jeremy Clarkson strike comments acceptable, says Ofcom
Jeremy Clarkson's comment that striking public sector workers "should be shot" was not in breach of broadcasting rules, media watchdog Ofcom has said.
The broadcasting standards body concluded that the Top Gear presenter's comments "were not made seriously".
It added that Clarkson's words "were not at all likely to encourage members of the public... to act on them in any way".
Ofcom acknowledged the comments were "potentially offensive" but were justified by the context.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17094947
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BBC bosses defend Clarkson - Armel Coussine
