So the Jeremy Clarkson saga rumbles on and complaints against the motormouth with the maturity levels of a gnat have reached over 30,000 following comments he made on The One Show last week.
Well, first off nobody can complain unless they’ve seen the comments in context. I know, I know, the old “I was quoted out of context” argument drives me mad too. But in some cases it is justified, simply because it gives you not just an idea of what was said in full but under what situation, be that duress or humour, or anything in between. I was ‘Mr Outraged’ before I actually saw the footage and then instantly changed my mind.
And secondly, let’s get one thing straight before I go any further, I am no fan of Clarkson but neither am I his biggest detractor. Simply because I know he makes a very lucrative living from having opinions.
And anybody who makes a living in this way is always in danger of straying into caricature territory. I fear dear old Jeremy has been stuck smack bang in the middle of that particular area for some time now.
I’ve worked closely with some of the country’s leading columnists and opinion formers in the past and in fact one of them was Clarkson’s sidekick Richard Hammond.
The Hamster was handed a column in the Daily Mirror while I was on the features desk, his star was rising and he was seen as the perfect mix of family man and bloke to appeal to readers in their Saturday paper.
But the problem was – and I’m sure Richard won’t mind me saying this – he simply did not have enough strong opinions to maintain a weekly national newspaper column. He struggled because he wanted to really believe in what he was writing. He couldn’t rant for the sake of it or feign interest in something that he wasn’t.
But his mate Clarkson is literally the opposite – give him a topic and he’ll have an instant opinion on it, based on his world view, whether he fully believes it or not. It’s all just one big game to him and he loves it.
And this brings us back to our question of context. On the day in question (Clarksongate, Strikergate or One Showgate anybody?) the guilty party was asked for his opinion on various topics, including the strikes of that very day.
The BBC press office was very quick to pounce on the context element and hastily sent out a full transcript of the section of the interview that discussed strikers.
And in fact at one stage Clarkson actually said this about the strikes: “I think they have been fantastic. Absolutely…It’s like being back in the 70s. It makes me feel at home somehow.”
He then proceeded to say: “But we have to balance this though, because this is the BBC. Frankly I’d have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families.”
So there you have it, Clarkson gave TWO views on the strikes, one tongue-in-cheek positive and one offensively negative. But the most important aspect of what he said was HOW he said it. There was literally a smirk on his face and it was clearly meant as a joke.
An ill-timed, crass, offensive joke - but a joke nonetheless. He wasn’t being serious, he was merely playing to the camera, like the big kid that he is.
Clarkson simply can’t help himself and when he is being egged on by the BBC he is going to put his foot in it, that’s his thing.
I don’t believe it was a calculated outburst in order to boost sales of his new DVD, as some have suggested. It was merely a stupid joke that was taken out of context and blown out of proportion.
And the result has not only been a boost in sales of his DVD but also, more significantly for Clarkson, it has moved the media story surrounding him on. By this I mean that for the last few months he has been engulfed in a series of stories surrounding the state of his marriage, following newspaper allegations of a sting of affairs, most notably with his ex-wife.
However this latest episode has moved on his personal story to the extent that reporters are now writing about his comments rather than his alleged indiscretions. If he was smart enough I would say this was the motivation behind his One Show remarks, but I fear that is giving the presenter and columnist too much credit.
But feel free to disagree it is, after all, only my opinion…
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