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Jeremy Clarkson Dismissed From Top Gear
An anonymous reader writes According to BBC News, Jeremy Clarkson, longstanding main host for the automobile television show Top Gear, will not have his contract renewed. This decision came about two weeks after he was suspended due to an altercation with a Top Gear producer involving catering during filming for the show. Admittedly not the nerdiest news of the day, but it can be said that his thirteen-year run on the new format of Top Gear has interested many Slashdot users who love their cars and the entertainment that the show has brought to them.
And on that Bomb shell...
End of show.
will be watching bbc management scramble when they realize their cash cow left the building when May and Hammond, decline to renew their contracts.
He is Boorish and bigoted against American vehicles.
Richard Hammond could carry that show all by himself. James May would be a perk.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
No, because their star with an over-inflated ego physically assaulted a coworker and drew blood. Nobody should have to put up with that. That being said I'll miss him as he was a fairly unique personality in tv.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Fact is BBC are getting dragged over the coals for letting all kinds of behavior from past stars go unchecked in order to keep the money flowing, including pedophiles. While I love Top Gear and will be sad to see its demise apparently he put the producer in hospital. Even if that is not true what is not in dispute is that he physically assaulted another person and some lines cannot be crossed no matter who you are or what you bring in. My anger in this case is not with the BBC, but with Clarkson himself. As far as I am concerned he killed Top Gear and no-one else.
The BBC is a public broadcaster, funded and owned by mandatory license fees in the UK.Clarkson was on contract to the BBC. Once the organization confirmed that unprovoked verbal and physical abuse had occurred, they had to take action or leave the corporation open to an indefensible lawsuit from the victim. They can't exactly say, "Yeah, get stuffed. We have extensive policies promoting equality and prohibiting harassment and violence in the workplace, but we're ignoring them because the presenter is popular and profitable."
No doubt Clarkson and pals will make a profitable jump to Netflix or Sky to make a similar motoring comedy show. Meanwhile, the BBC has a chance to reinvent Top Gear with younger presenters and a reinvigorated format (there are only so many new Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Aston Martins that can be driven around a track in a cloud of smoke every week and only so many routes for contrived road trips through war zones in ancient sports cars).
Even if the guy intentionally put his food in the refrigerator, it would not justify flipping out and yelling for 20 minutes, let alone punching the producer in the face.
I'll miss the show as it exists now, and not just because of the cars and the trips and the stunts - I'll miss it because Top Gear UK isn't afraid to call a manufacturer out on a bad car. That's something the US version can't, and won't do -- because in the US, you don't badmouth the very people who give you money in exchange for advertising on your show / magazine.
It was good while it lasted, and it's remarkable it lasted this long.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
Top Gear had hired most of a small hotel for a filming shoot. The shoot went on longer than expected and when they got back to the hotel they found the kitchen was closed. Not exactly unexpectedly since the kitchen open hours were stated.
So the idea that this was somehow a conspiracy by the producer to get Clarkson fired seems like a stretch unless you think he deliberately delayed the shoot so they would get back after the kitchen was closed.
These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
"Jersey is like a Lamborghini Miura from the 70s. Originally awesome even as it breaks down from time to time and slips into decrepit use. It always remained awesome as its lunacy remains. And then one day it (in a prima donna hissyfit?) PUNCHES your plain old Ford Focus of a producer right in the face when he says "You will fill up with this crappy 85 octane out of an old pail even though you are specified to only use 93 octane... And you will like it!". And then everyone came out of the woodwork and starts saying "It wasn't a sensible car" when that was NEVER the point and was why it was wonderful to begin with."
When they are out on a shoot I would expect a quality hot meal for the camera men and the grips let alone your star presenter!
The correct headline would be "Millionaire Celebrity Thug and Bigot Finally Dismissed by BBC."
The correct subhead would be "Assault on staff last straw, after insults to Mexico and use of n-word insufficient to force BBC executives to punish their cash cow."
Probably laughing about this.
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I'm probably a bigger fan of Tesla than you are, but watch this if you think he's against EVs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
Right, so you wouldn't punch a guy who called your mom, or someone close to you, a whore? We have to know exactly all those things that provoked Jeremy to punch this guy instead of rushing to a quick and inaccurate judgement.
I really wouldn't. Or at least not now that I'm an adult and have gotten over my teenage anger issues. I may very well tell someone off for name calling or have someone fired but I would not intervene physically unless they either started with physical violence or were doing something to make someone I cared about feel physically in danger (for instance got right in their face/backed them into a corner).
The refrigerator thing would definitely deserve being yelled at, don't you think? Employees have been fired for lesser offences.
It still wouldn't justify a 20 minute screaming tantrum that disrupted the entire hotel. A proportionate response would be to demand the food be heated or file a complaint. A proportionate response could even be to have someone fired (if it were negligent or malicious)
Anyone who has been bullied at work must be sickened by the public support for Jeremy Clarkson. Even in sacking him for the physical assault on Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon, BBC director general Tony Hall seemed almost apologetic, taking the opportunity to thank Clarkson for his work on Top Gear and wishing him the best for the future.
But if you've experienced bullying first hand then you know what a destructive force the Clarksons of the world are. Your workplace becomes a place of dread and fear. The stress becomes not just a part of your daily life, but a part of who you are as a person. It changes you.
My own experience of being bullied began when I took a job with a company that had just promoted a long-standing employee in to a management position. He had no experience of managing people, he received no training, and he openly said that he didn't want the job. He was visibly stressed almost constantly, and resented that he was still expected to work and not just manage other people's work.
Very early in the job I was shouted at in the middle of a busy office for completing a task that should have been cancelled. It was a foul-mouthed and very personal tirade of abuse, accusing me of being untrustworthy, and came totally out of the blue. Then my manager realised that he had forgotten to mark the task as cancelled, and quietly in a private room away from other staff, he apologised and promised never to speak to me like that in front of people again.
The details of bullying incidents are generally repetitive and boring, so suffice to say, this was just the beginning of what became regular abuse: Shouted at in the middle of the office for things I had allegedly done wrong, and then apologised to in private.
I put up with the abuse for way too long. I'd spoken to my union rep and kept a bullying diary as advised, but I never started a grievance procedure. Colleagues said I should, and one day I ended up talking to the company secretary about it, but I backed off, determined to resolve the issue myself. Ultimately, I told myself, this is a case of two grown men having a clash of personalities, and I should be able to resolve it. But of course I couldn't.
After about a year I had to take time off work for an unconnected health reason, which seemed to go on a lot longer than one might expect. After a week back at work, I was off again with flu, which seemed to go on forever. My doctor was puzzled and I was sent to the hospital for tests. But in conversation with my doctor one time I mentioned about how it was actually quite nice to be off work because it was an escape from the bullying, and it was as if I'd said the magic word. My doctor was certain that the stress of being bullied was the root cause of my poor health. It explained everything. It turns out that a year of sleepless nights and constant anxiety isn't very good for you.
The BBC has done the right thing in sacking Clarkson. When I finally had to take formal action against my manager, the company was combative, and handled it on the basis that I was making it all up. I opted for the least "official" form of grievance, third-party arbitration, and my manager held his hands up to what he'd been doing and promised to change. Whether he could or not, I don't know, as I've not been well enough to return to work yet.
I've watched every episode of Top Gear since Clarkson joined the programme. I like him as a presenter. But I see him now for what he really is: A person who knows how to present himself to the people who control his career -- his bosses and the viewers -- but feels he can abuse the people below him. No doubt he will now be snapped up by another TV channel, or Netflix, and he'll continue to make great programmes that entertain millions. But we know now what he's like behind the scenes, and even a bully that knows he's a bully will still be a bully.
No I am pretty sure they make more money off Top Gear being a worldwide success then they do off the British TV tax.
You're "pretty sure" are you? You know these sort of mindless random thoughts stated as fact is pretty fucking harmful.
Top Gear worth per year, about £50million
Licence fee collected last year, £3726million
Get a grip.
Because learning from your mistakes is such a bad thing. Idiot.
That is all.
Some say he punched an innocent person in the mouth-
others say he's the cash cow of the BBC-
But we just know him as... unemployed.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"I remember when that word used to mean something other than telling an off color joke.
There is no memory shortage. yes I have heard of XFCE. Go away.
The best outcome for everyone (but the BBC) is for all three hosts to go to another network and set up shop there. Call the new show anyhthing you like. The magic of Top Gear lies in the hosts, not the network. And Lord Knows, not the BBC.
Top Gear is the most popular TV show in history, with over 350 million viewers worldwide. There is no way in hell the show will fade away. Or the cast. There is no way Clarkson can be replaced, successfully. Fair or not, many viewers would see May and Hammond as traitors. The two will quickly realize they would be insane to stay, especially given their other (much more lucrative) options. So they will go too, probably to rejoin Clarkson at a network of their choosing, where they have *much* better support and artistic freedom. And hot food.
Clarkson was paid a measly $1.5M/year by the BBC. He can make more money per *episode* at a real network. It's plain from his recent shenanigans that Clarkson has been eager to rewrite his contract with the BBC for some time now. The only question is how soon Hammond and May follow Clarkson's example and head for greener pastures.
Bet on it.
I hate how the media is spinning this, that because 1 million people or whatever want someone back in a TV show, a TV star should somehow be above the set of laws and expected normal social behavior that the rest of us have to deal with. When someone starts hitting co-workers over the lack of warm food, they should get severely reprimanded - why is this even a discussion. The answer is of course because - and I will put this in tabloid terms because that is the only thing that seems to get across these days - of the way media works this day, how everyone now has a voice through the Internet, and the few voices of common sense gets drowned by moronic opinions of idiots. Why should you care about the opinion of a labour law expert when for each such expert ten thousand average Joe's and Jane's have touchy feely opinions that tell them something different.
The behavior in question seems to be some type of inflated ego syndrome, that people get so full of their own success that they feel petty stuff like following rules and being civil to one another is beneath them, that such things apply only to other people (which by the way includes their fan base). It is always sad to see how someone sympathetic get famous, then are starstruck by themselves, and shortly after enter a downward spiral and discover their dark side.
It is even sadder to watch the fan base. If the average fan turned away from this type of behavior and actually stopped watching a show for a period if the host has done something particularly offensive, that would send a clear message. Instead the shows probably get higher ratings because of the extra attention.
(scene) We are on a deserted airplane runway in Iceland
A car races by - with The Stig in it.
It pulls up to a shiny outdoor hot springs.
Another car races by.
It has a dark complexioned youth driving it. He's dressed in tweed and wears glasses. Thin Brit style. He gets out.
A third car races by.
It has a young short guy in it. He's done up for a footy game. He gets out.
A fourth car races by.
It opens, and the words Top Gear: Mark II appear.
It's a young British woman of mixed Asian descent.
The crowd goes wild.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --