On your marks… Get set… Go!
3:05 pm - November 4th 2008
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And the rightwing rags are off again.
This time the target is one of their own, BBC presenter and Thatcher-lovin’ columnist Jeremy Clarkson, who has upset viewers with a controversial remark about truckers.
Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has prompted more than 500 people to complain to the BBC about a joke he made on Sunday’s motoring show.
Clarkson, 48, was taking part in a lorry-driving task, when he joked about lorry drivers killing sex workers.
“Change gear, change gear, check mirror, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear, murder. That’s a lot of effort in a day,” he said.
The BBC said the joke had made “ridiculous an unfair urban myth”.
Lorry driver Steve Wright was jailed in February for killing five prostitutes in Ipswich.
I suppose Jez should be considered collateral damage?
Thanks to Leon for the link.
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Aaron Murin-Heath is an occasional contributor. He is a writer based in Newark-on-Trent and Tallinn, Estonia. He is both socially and economically liberal. Aaron blogs at tygerland.net.
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Reader comments
500 may have complained, but
a BBC spokesman said that by Monday morning – before the incident had been reported on by newspapers and websites – there had been 188 complaints.
Sunday’s programme, which aired on BBC Two at 2000 GMT, was watched by around seven million viewers. (BBC)
Clarkson’s joke was nicked hook, line, and sinker from Viz magazine, who’ve been riffing on the truckers=serial killers theme for absolutely years.
But Viz isn’t publicly funded, Larry, the Beeb is.
Therefore everything ever uttered by any broadcaster on any of their networks must be entirely inoffensive to everyone.
It’s PC gone mad!
Good grief, it was a joke. Not an especially funny one, but coming from Clarkson it was almost approaching wit. You really wish that these people would get over themselves.
and how many of the people who complained were poor aggrieved truckers?
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