With a viewership of six million Top Gear, the popular automobile show by Jeremy Clarkson, is a high income generator for BBC2. In other words, a golden egg for the venerable broadcaster.
As calls for Mr. Clarkson’s sacking after his most recent infringement of clean speech grow louder, BBC2, it would appear, is willing to dilute its otherwise ethical standards of news reporting in order to retain the popular presenter.
Mr. Clarkson is a repeat offender in passing demeaning comments and judgments as he motors around the world. His most recent verbal outrage has his producers and the BBC squirming, but not quite ready to do much more than reprimanding him.
Mr. Clarkson was caught out when he indignantly denied an allegation by the Daily Mirror that he had recited the nursery rhyme “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” using the racist N-word when choosing between two car models during the filming of an episode of Top Gear two years ago. He told his Twitter followers: “I did not use the n-word. Never use it. The Mirror has gone way too far this time.”
The Mirror then put the footage of the incident on its website, which indeed proved that he recited the rhyme using the racist word “nigger”. This forced the Top Gear presenter to respond saying that he “loathed” the word, and was “mortified” when he saw that the first of the three takes, which was a “mumbled version” that sounded as if he has used the n-word. He said he used the word “teacher” in the final version.
The BBC responded with an anodyne statement that it posted on its website. “Jeremy Clarkson has set out the background to this regrettable episode,” it said. “We have made it absolutely clear to him, the standards the BBC expects on air and off. We have left him in no doubt about how seriously we view this.”
The BBC has already been sued for one million pounds by Somi Guha, 36, an actress of Indian origin, for screening an episode of Top Gear in Burma this March in which Mr. Clarkson used the word “slope” — a derogatory term for people of Asian descent — to refer to a Burmese man crossing a bridge. “That is a proud moment, but there’s a slope on it,” Mr. Clarkson said in the show. It smacked of “casual racism”, Ms. Guha alleged.
On his show in India in 2011, he had viewers furious with his jibes at the country’s sanitation, clothing, food and much else. Driving around slums in a Jaguar fitted with a toilet, he said: “This is perfect for India because everyone who comes here gets the trots.”
Ofcom, the UK broadcasting regulator, routinely gets complaints from viewers about Mr. Clarkson.
In August 2010, while presenting news on a new Ferrari car, he said: “This one for example is just vulgar, and even James’ Ferrari (the 430) was a bit wrong. That smiling front end — it looked like a simpleton — should have been called the 430 Speciale Needs”.
In 2008, his comments on lorry drivers got hundreds of complaints. He said: “This is a hard job [driving a lorry] and I’m not just saying this to win favour with lorry drivers: change gear; change gear; change gear; check your mirrors; murder a prostitute…”
“The BBC will not fire Clarkson as he brings income and ratings,” Aliya Mohammed, Chief Executive of Race Equality First, told The Hindu. “I think Clarkson should put his actions where his words are and pro-actively show just how sorry he is by publicly supporting anti-discriminatory initiatives and campaigns. Clarkson should set a good example and at least try to be a public figure people should look up to.”
