What The World is Reading: The BBC’s ‘cash cow’

Clarkson in London on March 11

A day after the BBC suspended Jeremy Clarkson, the host of the globally viewed car programme Top Gear, because he allegedly punched a producer, his supporters launched an online petition to reinstate him and over half a million people have already signed it.

“For supporters of the #BringBackClarkson campaign, the BBC’s decision to suspend their employee is another example of ‘political correctness gone mad’ in an era being ruined by a no-fun liberal elite,” writes Joe Sandler Clarke for The Independent. “For his numerous supporters he is a throwback. A reminder of a nobler, more fictional time, when homosexuality didn’t exist, paedophiles hadn’t yet been created, women knew their place, and calling an Asian man a ‘slope’ was just a way of being playful.” Even so, “his views are described as irreverent, funny and cheeky when they could just as easily be termed racist, offensive and stupid”.

The 54-year-old, after arriving at his hotel following a shoot, allegedly told producer Oisin Tymon he fancied a sirloin steak with fondant potatoes, pan-fried wild mushrooms, grilled cherry tomatoes and peppercorn sauce. The “fracas”, according to The Telegraph, erupted when Tymon, 36, told him the kitchen was closed and suggested a platter of cold meat and cheese instead.

While pointing out what Clarkson’s detractors are missing when they run him down, Hadley Freeman writes in The Guardian that the man is a “genius”. She also reminds her readers that “Top Gear is literally the only show on television for men” as “the rest of the TV schedule is just overrun with middle-aged women talking about feminism and vaginas, 24/7”.

Taking an opposing view, Suzanne Moore, also for The Guardian, says, “Clarkson is part of a group seeking not only to put a brake on social progress, but to drag us backwards.” She accuses the BBC of being unable to let go of its “cash cow” and thus tolerating him to have used “language that no state school in the land does” for years.

“Clarkson is not stupid. Nor is he a maverick or outlier. He is a central part of the establishment. He parties with Cameron. Just as Ukip is not a maverick party, but made up of disgruntled Tories; just as Boris Johnson is not a maverick but a born-to-rule chancer; just as bloggers such as Guido Fawkes pretend to be anti-politics mavericks but are hard-rightwingers — this section of the right deludes itself that it is somehow ‘outside’ the establishment rather than its pumping heart,” she adds.

Source:: Indian Express