14 DAY TRIAL // The scandal in which Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson is accused of uttering the N-word in an unaired video from the series is picking up. The British tabloids had a field day yesterday, speculating that the TV personality was going to get the boot and spurring people to voice their opinion on the matter.
Today, we can get an idea about just how seriously Clarkson is taking things, because he's issued a video formal apology in which he humbly begs people's forgiveness. You see, normally, Clarkson would never even bother to address the issue, and this isn't the first time he's been accused of racist remarks, but it seems this time, he really feels guilty about it and he's sorry for it.
The video footage that was an outtake from an earlier episode of the show has Jeremy sitting between two cars, struggling to pick his favorite. He resorts to using the nursery rhyme beginning to chant “eeny, meeny, miney, mo.”
The rest of the offensive verses which would go “Eeny, meeny, miney, moe, [mumbled], catch a [n-word] by his toe, when he squeals let him go, eeny, meeny, miney, moe,” but the presenter chose to mumble the offensive part.
Today, he's coming forward claiming he wishes he'd done a better job at hiding the word and claims that it's a term he never uses.
“Ordinarily I don’t respond to newspaper allegations but on this occasion I feel I must make an exception,” begins his statement, adding his explanation “A couple of years ago I recorded an item for Top Gear in which I quoted the rhyme ‘eeny meeny miny moe.’”
“Now of course I was well aware that in the best known version of this rhyme there is a racist expression that I was extremely keen to avoid. The full rushes show that I did three takes,” the presenter goes on.
“In two I mumbled where the offensive word would normally occur and in the third I replaced it altogether with the word teacher,” Clarkson explains and then quickly adds his apology “Please be assured I did everything in my power to not use that word.”
He concludes his statement by saying that he is “begging for your forgiveness” and that “my efforts weren't quite good enough.”
Meanwhile, the BBC has refused to comment on Clarskson's future with the network, but it has said that “We have made it absolutely clear to him the standards the BBC expects on-air and off. We have left him in no doubt about how seriously we view this.”
Now, the public response to this scandal has divided viewers into two camps: one demands that Clarkson be sacked since this is not the first time he's caused a stir with controversial racism comments, while the other camp defends Clarkson and asks that the BBC keep him on.