Quote:
Originally Posted by m42stanle
My reference to domestic violence was simply to show the absurd extreme of that line of reasoning, the attempt to shift blame from the guy doing the sucker punching to the guy getting sucker punched. We need to shift the blame back where it belongs. (BTW You don't have to take my word for it, Clarkson himself said the same thing in one the few quotes he gave after the firing was announced)
Believe me I am as big a TG fan as anyone here (rewatched S12 ep 1, 2 and 3 last night and will watch a couple more episodes after posting this) but as I said earlier my position is that the BBC did not overreact by any stretch in sacking him. Given the facts I think their reaction was measured and the outcome was quite predictable. FWIW as well I think any arguments about existing "friction" with the BBC, that the network was out to get him, or that Clarkson was on his last warning are academic - a physical attack like that is so far over the line of any company's code of conduct (especially a Crown corp like BBC) that even taken in isolation it would be a fireable offense regardless of any commercial or business considerations.
My reaction rather was that we were all profoundly let down by Clarkson here. He showed us that his on screen "everyman" persona, the working class roots, non-PC, racist-but-not-too-racist guy is a myth. He is in fact just a wealthy, entitled primadonna who lost control of himself over a dinner order.
IMHO the petition should not be "BBC reinstate Clarkson" it should instead be "Clarkson we demand you present yourself to be placed in the stocks and pelted with rotten tomatoes for exhibiting spectacularly bad judgment, and causing the cancellation of our favourite show. Shame."
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I can agree with that (viewers suffer) and really that is the end result of all this - the viewership who followed the show are the ones who get the short end of the stick. Tymon still could have walked away in 20 minutes he had and Clarkson could have never thrown the punch - again it seems as if they just wanted him gone.