Wednesday, October 03, 2012



Must not mention elephants

Even if you are the most outspoken man in Britain



Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson breached BBC guidelines by comparing a Japanese car to people with growths on their faces.

A report by the the BBC Trust’s editorial standards committee (ESC) found he 'strayed into an offensive stereotypical assumption' with the scripted remarks during an episode of the hit motoring show.

A member of the public complained about the 'offensive' remarks after Clarkson likened the shape of a Prius campervan to someone with 'a growth on their face' and referred to it as the 'elephant car.'

The ESC said the show’s audience enjoyed the presenters’ 'sometimes controversial and forthright views' but ruled this remark 'played on a stereotypically negative reaction to facial disfigurement.'

'The committee concluded that this programme was in breach of the guidelines on harm and offence as the exchanges about facial disfigurement were not editorially justified and did not meet generally accepted standards in the context of their portrayal of a disability.' It upheld the complaint.

Source

Clarkson actually said nothing about the elephant man -- a circus freak of the 19th century.  Some people just put his words together that way.  His description of the car was pretty spot-on.  Only a Greenie could love it

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL

Bird of Paradise said...

PC the socialists radical ideas

Anonymous said...

I saw the show and you have to want to be offended by the exchange, and the car is hideous.

MDH

Anonymous said...

Anon 2:05, and that's the point!

Those looking for offences are typically the only ones who are actually offended. The rest of us have thick skins, understand irony and sarcasm, and try to get on with our lives instead of unnecessarily stirring up the pot.

Anonymous said...

What i find amusing is how we're still surprised to see that britain has replaced free speech with political correctness.

Anonymous said...

3:24 What still surprises me is that folks like you still like to condemn whole countries on the basis of individual incidents, but maybe don't do the same when it concerns your own country (just happy to cast stones in glass houses).

Anonymous said...

Brittain has allowed Islam to take hold, therefore, we will judge the entire country accordingly.

Anonymous said...

LIBERAL ALERT! Anon 6:44 is using name calling because he can't.put an argument together.

Anonymous said...

An elephant on a June bug comes to mind.

Ok not really. An elephant doing the June bug is what I really thought......

Anonymous said...

Anon12:07 - What argument? I am just expressing my feelings without being PC about it.

Anonymous said...

So Anon 6:31 is an asshole for speaking the truth? Oh, that's right, that's how Liberals make an argument: Hear the truth spoken by a conservative, decide they don't like to hear the truth, lash out with verbal abuse. Got it.

Anonymous said...

"for speaking the truth?"

Are you the arbiter of truth or just yet another right winger lashing out?

Anonymous said...

6:31's use of "truth" is very elastic. What does Islam taking hold in Britain (not Brittain)actually mean, and how does it affect the whole country, such that anyone is justified in making a such a negative generalization about the entire country?

Anonymous said...

Sharia Law in the UK is only for muslims who opt for it.

Anonymous said...

Islam is about lustful flesh not the spiritual - see their leader - all flesh.