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