Recall that Jeremy Clarkson reportedly gave defenseless Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon a mind-boggling twenty-minute tongue lashing, before raining down a torrent of physical blows on him. All this just because the hotel where they were shooting on location had only cold food available, instead of the sizzling steak and crisp chips he expected to be served.
Yet no less a person than News Corp Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch led the chorus of those venting consternation that the BBC would even countenance sacking Clarkson. Murdoch, of course, is a pied piper in the vast wasteland television has become … and social media ever was.
Here is the viral tweet he tweeted on March 24 to advance his latest ignoble cause:
How stupid can BBC be in firing Jeremy Clarkson? Funny man with great expertise and huge following.
But Clarkson’s supporters, especially those blaming his victim for the fallout, should appreciate that what Murdoch is saying is as morally repugnant as saying that it was stupid of the Baltimore Ravens to fire Ray Rice for beating up his then fiancée Janay Palmer. After all, Rice was not only their leading rusher, and indispensable to any chance of repeating their 2012 feat as Super Bowl champions; he was easily their most popular player.
By contrast, here is what I urged the BBC to do:
I applaud the BCC for promptly suspending Clarkson and canceling the show’s final two episodes of this season. I also appreciate it holding a full inquiry, which convenes today, to discover facts and grant him procedural due process. But, having already made quite a show of issuing Clarkson that final warning, the BBC has no choice now but to sack him…
As entertaining as he admittedly is, however, Clarkson is no more indispensable to Top Gear than Sean Connery was to the James Bond…
The BBC can ill afford to be seen coddling an unrepentant bully and “casual racist” like Clarkson after all of the reputational damage it suffered two years ago, when reports revealed that it had been coddling an equally unrepentant bully and serial pedophile like Jimmy Savile… for decades.
So kudos to the BBC for putting the brakes on Top Gear; and here’s to it making sure that, when the show starts again, Clarkson is no longer one of the three presenters in the driver’s seat.
(“BBC Puts Brakes on Top Gear,” The iPINIONS Journal, March 16, 2015)
Well, here is how BBC Director General Tony Hall announced the organization’s fateful decision on this now notorious steak and chips “fracas:”
It is with great regret that I have told Jeremy Clarkson today that the BBC will not be renewing his contract. It is not a decision I have taken lightly…
There cannot be one rule for one and one rule for another dictated by either rank, or public relations and commercial considerations.
(BBC, March 25, 2015)
Hear, hear!
And here’s to this arrogant brute now being formally charged with assault for causing Tymon to end up in hospital with a bloody, busted fat lip.
Incidentally, many media commentators speculated that Hall would find some way to give Clarkson (yet) another pass – not just because of his “huge [Twitter] following,” but also because of their personal friendship. This is why Hall’s principled decision to sack him should be instructive – not just to media commentators in the United States, but also to the new head of NBC News, Andrew Lack.
News of the talks, which bounced around media circles, prompted speculation that Lack, a good friend of Brian Williams, the exiled anchor of the network’s “Nightly News,” will push early to get the fact-challenged newsman back on the air.
‘Andy Lack wouldn’t come back without Brian, said a source friendly with both executives. ‘This is all about saving Brian.”
(New York Post, March 3, 2015)
Frankly, given the fatal blows Williams inflicted upon his own credibility, hosting a show like The Biggest Loser or a reboot of Truth or Consequences is the only TV role he’s now fit to play.
Related commentaries:
Top Gear…
Nightly News…