"he wasn't speaking about strikers he was talking about people who worked at the BBC out to be shot, People who didn't work for a living"
No, I'm afraid you've got the wrong end of the stick there. He said "this is the BBC, so we've got to be balanced". SO then he "balanced" his comments about "The strikes are marvellous, 'cos I can drive as fast as I like", by saying "the strikers ought to be shot". It was a joke about balance, done in a deliberately *non*-balanced way.
For my money, if he'd just said "they ought to be shot" and not gone any further, that would have been a bit tasteless but obviously humorous in intent. But he then went on, and talked about doing it in front of their families, which gets into some pretty horrifying ideas for daytime TV and particularly horrifying for anyone who has actually been in fear of a bullet, or who is genuinely fearful about how Western governments are starting to behave much like certain middle Eastern ones are famed for, towards any of their citizens who cause a fuss. (See the way the US has been treating Occupy protesters, for example). There's an ugly streak in the UK populace and especially in the UK media that's pushing towards that kind of hardline response to anything they see as disruptive. Now, maybe Clarkson was just trying to parody that, but if so, (a) he's the wrong man to try (because his public image is so right wing that, as has happened, people take him seriously), and (b) he chose very much the wrong platform to do it.
no subject
No, I'm afraid you've got the wrong end of the stick there. He said "this is the BBC, so we've got to be balanced". SO then he "balanced" his comments about "The strikes are marvellous, 'cos I can drive as fast as I like", by saying "the strikers ought to be shot". It was a joke about balance, done in a deliberately *non*-balanced way.
For my money, if he'd just said "they ought to be shot" and not gone any further, that would have been a bit tasteless but obviously humorous in intent. But he then went on, and talked about doing it in front of their families, which gets into some pretty horrifying ideas for daytime TV and particularly horrifying for anyone who has actually been in fear of a bullet, or who is genuinely fearful about how Western governments are starting to behave much like certain middle Eastern ones are famed for, towards any of their citizens who cause a fuss. (See the way the US has been treating Occupy protesters, for example). There's an ugly streak in the UK populace and especially in the UK media that's pushing towards that kind of hardline response to anything they see as disruptive. Now, maybe Clarkson was just trying to parody that, but if so, (a) he's the wrong man to try (because his public image is so right wing that, as has happened, people take him seriously), and (b) he chose very much the wrong platform to do it.