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Jeremy Clarkson apologises (again) as media fuels racism outrage

Video: Jeremy Clarkson says "I did everything in my power to not use that word."

Screen Shot 2014-05-02 at 11.23.01 am.jpgJeremy Clarkson is in hot water yet again over his choice of words, but this time for an outtake that was never broadcast in Top Gear.

Tabloid newspaper the Daily Mirror has claimed he mumbled the N-word during a shoot for the third episode of the 19th season while reciting the “eenie meenie” rhyme (Warning: YouTube clip is here).

Clarkson, who has a string of offensive misdemeanours, has since responded, saying there were 3 takes in which he sought to avoid using the offensive word.

“Now of course, I was well aware that in the best known version of this rhyme there is a racist word that I was extremely keen to avoid,” he says.

“The full rushes show that I did three takes. In two, I mumbled where the offensive word would occur, and in the third I replaced it altogether with the word ‘teacher’.

“When I viewed this footage several weeks later, I realised that in one of the mumbled versions, if you listen very carefully with the sound turned right up, it did appear that I’d actually used the word I was trying to obscure.

“I was mortified by this, horrified. It was a word I loathe.

“I did everything in my power to ensure that that word did not get in the programme that was transmitted.”

He also referred to a note he claims to have written at the time to the production team, stating: “I didn’t use the n-word here, but I’ve just listened through my headphones and it sounds like I did. Is there another take we could use?”

“Please be assured I did everything in my power to not use that word. And, as I am sitting here, [I’m] begging your forgiveness for the fact that obviously my efforts weren’t quite good enough.”

However the story comes days after the show’s producer apologised for broadcasting a separate “light-hearted” joke by Clarkson in Burma, that led to the BBC show being accused of racism.

Source: Telegraph

9 Responses

  1. This is just plain offensive. By spending and wasting so much time on this, the media is ignoring real racism. While undermining actual action against racism.

  2. You can see how ridiculous this has become. Clarkson has said many offensive things just to be provocative, and that’s ok.

    Here he mistakenly uses an old version of a kid’s nursery rhyme. It was a bad take that was discarded and never broadcast. The segment was about saying there was nothing between the two cars so you may as well pick one at random.

    Yet it is treated like he called someone an offensive and demeaning name to their face.

    Crazy.

  3. Ridiculous. I thought the same thing around ten years ago when my granddaughter came to visit and she recited “Eenie meenie miney mo, catch a tiger by the toe”. I asked her where she learned that and she told me her teacher taught it. I then realised how PC and censorious we had all become.

  4. Oh please. We’ve all made the mistake I’m using that term. It wasn’t even broadcast in the public arena! Just (Another) media beat up from the Daily Mirror

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