Report Jeremy Clarkson to the Press Complaints Commission
Carl Bernstein | 08.12.2011 00:20 | Occupy Everywhere | Public sector cuts | Repression | Workers' Movements
Indymedia users made a significant contribution to encouraging members of the public to register complaints with Ofcom and the BBC, in protest against Jeremy Clarkson suggesting striking public sector workers should be murdered. The Samaritans, Mind and Rethink Mental Illness are also making complaints to the Press Complaints Commission, urging them to investigate Jeremy Clarkson for suggesting that the remains of suicide victims should be eaten by wild animals. Please help by registering your complaint with the Press Complaints Commission here...
http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/form.html
http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/form.html
Indymedia users made a very significant contribution to encouraging members of the public to register complaints with Ofcom and the BBC, in protest against Jeremy Clarkson suggesting striking public sector workers should be murdered in front of their families. Coming soon after EDL sympathiser Anders Breivik slaughtered left-wing teenagers in Norway, and in context of increasing EDL violence against anti-capitalist groups and protest camps, Jeremy Clarkson's incitement was reckless in the extreme, and over 31,000 complaints have been received by the BBC, as of this Monday last. In addition, the charities Samaritans, Mind and Rethink Mental Illness will also be making complaints to the Press Complaints Commission, urging them to investigate Jeremy Clarkson for his article in last Saturday's Sun newspaper, in which Jeremy Clarkson suggested that the remains of suicide victims should be eaten by wild animals. Please help by registering your own complaint with the Press Complaints Commission here...
http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/form.html
And if you've not complained to Ofcom and to the BBC already, please do so now...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/#anchor
https://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/specific-programme-epg
In the same Sun newspaper article, Jeremy Clarkson also contradicted earlier BBC statements, denying he had ever apologised (as the BBC pretended he had) for advocating the murder of Trades Unionists, so Indymedia users are reminded that public outrage over the hacking of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's mobile phone led to an advertising boycott that destroyed the Sun's sister newspaper The News of the World. The fact that public protests destroyed one of the most powerful right-wing media outlets in the UK was a massive victory for progressive activism, and provides a real measure of campaigners' potential and actual strength in that respect. Indymedia users are also reminded that Jeremy Clarkson is also a close friend of disgraced former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, and reminded that Anders Breivik quoted Jeremy Clarkson's column in The Sunday Times newspaper in the manifesto that Anders Breivik posted on-line before murdering 69 activists. The Sun, The News of the World and The Sunday Times are of course all owned by militantly anti-Union newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch, who also owns the rabidly xenophobic right-wing propaganda channel Fox News.
With regard to Jeremy Clarkson's latest comments, a train driver who has coped with rail suicide wrote in The Guardian that he was "shocked by Clarkson", while The Samaritans chief executive Catherine Johnstone said "the insensitivity of Jeremy Clarkson’s comments in his Sun column... truly beggars belief". Mind's chief executive Paul Farmer stated that "Jeremy Clarkson's article in The Sun is extraordinarily tasteless, and shows an utter lack of understanding of the tragedy of any suicide... Our colleagues at Samaritans have an excellent partnership with Network Rail and have already helped to reduce the number of suicides on the railway through sensitive, but focussed work". Paul Jenkins, chief executive of Rethink Mental Illness added "Jeremy Clarkson needs to remember the families and friends of people who jump in front of trains. Every suicide is someone's son, daughter or mother or father. They need to know that their relative's body has been treated with respect... While train drivers deserve our sympathy in these terrible situations, so do the families and friends who are left behind". There are no guarantees that this campaign will work, but the only way to guarantee it WON'T work is not to give it your active support!
http://www.mind.org.uk/news/6128_jeremy_clarkson_article_in_the_sun
http://www.rethink.org/how_we_can_help/news_and_media/press_releases/clarkson_should_reme.html
http://www.samaritans.org/media_centre/latest_press_releases/jeremy_clarkson_comment.aspx
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/05/jeremy-clarkson-rail-suicide
Heard the one about Jeremy Clarkson?
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/12/489782.html
http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/form.html And if you've not complained to Ofcom and to the BBC already, please do so now...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/#anchor https://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/specific-programme-epg In the same Sun newspaper article, Jeremy Clarkson also contradicted earlier BBC statements, denying he had ever apologised (as the BBC pretended he had) for advocating the murder of Trades Unionists, so Indymedia users are reminded that public outrage over the hacking of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's mobile phone led to an advertising boycott that destroyed the Sun's sister newspaper The News of the World. The fact that public protests destroyed one of the most powerful right-wing media outlets in the UK was a massive victory for progressive activism, and provides a real measure of campaigners' potential and actual strength in that respect. Indymedia users are also reminded that Jeremy Clarkson is also a close friend of disgraced former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, and reminded that Anders Breivik quoted Jeremy Clarkson's column in The Sunday Times newspaper in the manifesto that Anders Breivik posted on-line before murdering 69 activists. The Sun, The News of the World and The Sunday Times are of course all owned by militantly anti-Union newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch, who also owns the rabidly xenophobic right-wing propaganda channel Fox News.
With regard to Jeremy Clarkson's latest comments, a train driver who has coped with rail suicide wrote in The Guardian that he was "shocked by Clarkson", while The Samaritans chief executive Catherine Johnstone said "the insensitivity of Jeremy Clarkson’s comments in his Sun column... truly beggars belief". Mind's chief executive Paul Farmer stated that "Jeremy Clarkson's article in The Sun is extraordinarily tasteless, and shows an utter lack of understanding of the tragedy of any suicide... Our colleagues at Samaritans have an excellent partnership with Network Rail and have already helped to reduce the number of suicides on the railway through sensitive, but focussed work". Paul Jenkins, chief executive of Rethink Mental Illness added "Jeremy Clarkson needs to remember the families and friends of people who jump in front of trains. Every suicide is someone's son, daughter or mother or father. They need to know that their relative's body has been treated with respect... While train drivers deserve our sympathy in these terrible situations, so do the families and friends who are left behind". There are no guarantees that this campaign will work, but the only way to guarantee it WON'T work is not to give it your active support!
http://www.mind.org.uk/news/6128_jeremy_clarkson_article_in_the_sun http://www.rethink.org/how_we_can_help/news_and_media/press_releases/clarkson_should_reme.html http://www.samaritans.org/media_centre/latest_press_releases/jeremy_clarkson_comment.aspx http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/05/jeremy-clarkson-rail-suicide Heard the one about Jeremy Clarkson?
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/12/489782.html
Carl Bernstein
Comments
Hide the following 33 comments
Hands up who thinks Jeremy Clarkson's funny
08.12.2011 00:48
Context
Jeremy Clarkson Fan Club
08.12.2011 00:51
Jeremy Clarkson Fan Club
Jeremy Clarkson
Our best chance to get back at Murdoch for Wapping
08.12.2011 01:00
Veteran
Fox News makes up new section of US Constitution
08.12.2011 01:08
Regan
Jeremy Clarkson, Rebekah Brooks + David Cameron in Chipping Norton
08.12.2011 01:12
Sputnik
The actual context for Jeremy Clarkson's comments
08.12.2011 01:23
The handiwork of Clarkson's admirer Anders Breivik
Reverse Gear
Still flogging this dead horse ?
08.12.2011 09:31
He was taking the piss out of the BBC's slavish adherence to 'balance' even when balance is clearly redundant. I appreciate that for some people trying to get Clarkson sacked is a holy thing but in the bigger scheme of things his contribution to the N30 strike issue is minuscule and by focusing on this attention has been diverted from actual important things.
Rick O' Shea
@Rick O' Shea
08.12.2011 11:40
Jeremy Clarkson and Rebekah Brooks
Callum
Pretension alert
08.12.2011 12:22
I'm not sure if you intended it and it's possible you don't understand what the point of the cartoon is (do you understand the purpose of the imagery and how it relates to the words?) but the cartoon reinforces the post I made. This is a nothing story that a number of people tried to whip up into a real news event and these same people seem to imagine that a few thousand people emailing the BBC is going to have a cause and effect that will lead to Clarkson getting sacked.
The news cycle has moved on, Clarkson was probably fortunate to be filming in China because he avoided most of the paps which might have kept the story on the pages 24 hours more.
This is now only playing in Indy and activist circles, everyone else has gone back to Strictly and Man Utd's score.
Rick O' Shea
WHO?
08.12.2011 12:45
anon
Ban him!
08.12.2011 20:16
Authority
Nice try dickhead
09.12.2011 09:02
Sparrow
@Rick
09.12.2011 09:10
I'd call being on the front page of almost every newspaper in the UK a "real" news event, wouldn't you?
> "and these same people seem to imagine that a few thousand people emailing the BBC"
It was 31,000, by last Monday, and the BBC havn't found the courage to issue updated figures since then ;)
> "is going to have a cause and effect that will lead to Clarkson getting sacked"
Will this get Clarkson sacked? Honest answer - no idea, but if major celebrities advocate murdering strikers, on the strength of recent attacks (the EDL and Anders Breivik etc) there's a real chance some idiot might actually do it (kill strikers that is), so strikers have 2 options 1/ sit back and take the abuse, 2/ fight back; and the constant trolling of these posts by Clarkson toadies proves they're seriously worried by what's happening here
Rebekah Brooks
Press Complaints Commission
09.12.2011 09:14
Sparrow
Point proven
09.12.2011 11:13
Point me to any news organisation that is still discussing this story outside of IMC.
Your post displays better than I could ever have done the naivety of individuals who think that writing emails of complaint to the BBC concerning a massive revenue generator like Clarkson is going to make a difference.
This entire affair has been successful only in diverting attention from the real issues behind the strikes. The self righteous, victim like, whining of various Trade Union leaders and individuals here has been a gift for the right wing press like the Daily Mail / Telegraph / Sky who have been able to witter on about it while avoiding discussing the real important issues actually affecting real working people in the UK .
Cameron must be laughing his arse off at the break he got from his friend Clarkson.
Rick O' Shea
News event
09.12.2011 12:26
No I wouldn't. In the media a "real news event" is one where the media has a unified voice, has a clear strategy of what it wants to achieve and is committed to achieving it. None of the above applies to this.
JC makes a a lot of money for both the BBC and News Corp so they are not going to attack him which leaves the right of centre print press most of whom couldn't give a monkey's about some pissed off Lefty types.
Other posters predicted correctly that this story would last 48 hours......and it did. As far as the media is concerned this story is over apart from a few paparazzi photos they will buy when Clarkson gets back from China.
Journo
Nobody is forced to have a TV
09.12.2011 15:02
Nobody is forced to have a TV only forced to pay for paying the costs of the programs on it. In the same way everybody is 'forced' to pay for commercial TV by paying a levy on the goods they buy that are advertised on TV. Trying buying a pint of milk from Tescos and saying you don't want to pay that percentage.
TV Times
Jesus you trolls are stupid
10.12.2011 11:56
The BBC has shelved Friday night's scheduled edition of BBC2 panel show QI featuring Jeremy Clarkson because of fears it would prompt another backlash from viewers....
And HUNDREDS of others
Black & Decker
Clarkson dropped by QI
10.12.2011 11:59
Mark Thompson
Jeremy Clarkson in China
10.12.2011 13:21
Jeremy Clarkson in China
Andrew
The birth of Jeremy Clarkson
10.12.2011 13:55
General Franco
Plus Jabba the Hutt
in a DNA-mixing teleportation machine, produces...
Lord Clarkson of Chipping Norton
Mike
Thanks "Black & Decker "
11.12.2011 11:18
Thanks very much
Rick O Shea
Explanation
11.12.2011 14:10
Mark Thompson "
Illustrating perfectly why you do not understand the news business.
Journo
@Rick O Shea
11.12.2011 15:35
As for "Journo", what this all proves is that you're the one journo in the world who's actually stupid enough to not realise that multiple news organisations reporting a news story through world-wide news channels actually is a "real" news event. Your self-evidently delusional state of mind ties-in neatly with what The Daily Mail said about how Clarkson's losing his mind
The Grain
The blind trying to mis-lead the stupid
11.12.2011 15:40
Don
Trolls still lying - Jeremy Clarkson in BBC disrepute probe 11 Dec
11.12.2011 22:34
Jeremy Clarkson
Dec 11 2011 by Lee Harpin, The People
Jeremy Clarkson’s BBC career could be left in tatters after channel chiefs launched a disrepute probe. They are said to be furious at the Top Gear host, whose comments about public sector strikers have so far sparked more than 31,000 complaints. On Friday night the BBC took the unprecedented step of pulling this week’s episode of QI, which featured Clarkson. It is keen to act swiftly after it was accused of being “unacceptably slow” during the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand scandal three years ago. Brand eventually resigned from Radio 2 and Ross was suspended after the pair made an offensive on-air phone call to Andrew Sachs. One senior insider told The People last night: “It’s completely hypocritical to keep Clarkson in a job while Russell Brand was forced to quit, and Jonathan Ross suspended, over their prank calls".
Mark Thompson
Wot no Clarkson
12.12.2011 10:44
Dire Straits
The Daily Star ?
12.12.2011 15:46
Perhaps all those claiming that Clarkson's career is over and he will be sacked soon can comment on the deal signed this week to produce new series' of Top Gear for 2013 and 2014 with Andy Wilman even getting a pay rise for the three of them as part of the package.
Laughing bystander
Yeah, I bet their really livid
12.12.2011 16:54
What for all the money he contributes to the BBC, for the massive viewing figures Top Gear gets from all around the world, for the revenue the BBC gets through the Top Gear brand ?
Grow up
Howard Hughes
@bystander
12.12.2011 19:05
Your other lie is to pretend that anyone here is "claiming that Clarkson's career is over and (that) he will be sacked soon" - we might be HOPING this will happen, but we havn't said what you claimed, and for you to pretend we have is the exact desperation that you accuse others of but instead display through your own actions.
Thanks for trying to put Andy Wilman in the frame BTW (with friends like you in the BBC Andy Wilman really doesn't need enemies) but your comments about him are irrelevant as Andy Wilman is not the person who said strikers should be murdered and Andy Wilman is not the person these threads campaign against
Still laughing
Sparrow shit
14.12.2011 14:08
Like I said, as an anarchist I think the BBC should ban humour that I find offensive from its airwaves.
Keep up your brave battle with Tourettes, tweety....
Control
Ofcom confirm investigation of Jeremy Clarkson 20.12.2011
20.12.2011 21:12
And, to reply to "Control", "the "Birth of Jeremy Clarkson" post (above here) and the "heard the one about Jeremy Clarkson" posts are actual jokes, albeit serious, but Jeremy Clarkson saying people ought to be shot may be stupid, but isn't a joke, in much the same way that me pointing out you're a fucking idiot isn't a joke either.
Fact is Clarkson (and his sycophants) and so emotionally jaded they don't even know what a real joke is any more
Dean
Clarkson + EDL
10.01.2012 01:03
Clarkson + Fascist
Mark