Clarkson Still Got Away With It

It was back in December that the Murdoch Sun published a column by has-been petrolhead Jeremy Clarkson in which he engaged in a creepy, sexist and indeed misogynistic attack on the Duchess of Sussex. So severe was the level of creepiness employed that adverse comment, in the form of tens of thousands of complaints to press non-regulator IPSO, soon followed.

Why that should be is not hard to deduce when you consider what Jezza wrote: “Meghan, though, is a different story. I hate her. Not like I hate Nicola Sturgeon or Rose West. I hate her on a cellular level … At night, I’m unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her”. All heart, eh?

He went on to claim “Everyone who’s my age thinks the same way”. Bullshit. And, in case you missed it, he said Megs was worse than a mass murderer. Worse still, his column appeared just three days after he and a number of other C-listers had been guests at a lunch hosted by the Queen Consort.

Who is, apparently, not Haz and Megs’ biggest fan. But, as Zelo Street regulars will know, the offending column was merely “An opinion piece”, so IPSO would do nothing. Their problem was the court of public opinion had in the meantime sided firmly with the Sussexes, despite the tsunami of bad faith knocking copy and broadcast appearances by those opposed to them.

This was despite Clarkson telling anyone who would listen that he was “horrified” (straight-A fuck right off) and the Sun taking down the online version of his handiwork. It was despite Sun editor Victoria Newton being gifted an appearance on the Kuenssberg show, where the offending column was not mentioned and she got to tell how nice they were to the Sussexes.

Almost as if the BBC were complicit in letting Jezza get away with it. But the backlash against his creepy column, together with how bad it looked that the Sun’s editors and lawyers were prepared to pass it for publication at the same time as the Sussexes were engaged in legal action against the Murdoch press, eventually caused something to be done. But not very much.

The BBC has reported, “A column by Jeremy Clarkson in the Sun - in which he wrote about the Duchess of Sussex being paraded naked in the street - was sexist, the press regulator has ruled … The imagery was ‘humiliating and degrading towards the duchess’, Ipso chairman Lord Faulks said … the Sun said it ‘accepts that with free expression comes responsibility’”. Yeah, right.

Do go on. “The Sun and its columnist apologised for the column last December and removed the article from its website. However while it has said the column fell ‘short of its high editorial standards and should not have been published’ it has not accepted that it breached the editor's code, saying concerns raised were a ‘matter of taste and judgement’”.

The Sun? “High editorial standards”? You’re having a laugh. As Sunder Katwala observed (see full thread HERE), “The decision has taken six months, largely because this article would not have breached the code, if Ipso applied it prior understanding of the code [IPSO excused Katie Hopkins’ ‘cockroaches’ rant]. Ipso appears to have decided (for reputational reasons) to have found the withdrawn article in breach of the code in hindsight”.

He also notes that “Clarkson is the first ever partial breach on sexism. There has never been a racism finding … [the Editor’s Code] has v few prohibitions on sexist or racist speech. Is there any point at all in an anti-discrimination clause that would still give a green light to Streicher or Goebbels?” POINT.

And as Professor Brian Cathcart put it in an article for Byline Times, “this outcome represents a triumphant vindication for all those who complained, because IPSO’s past record leaves no doubt that it would never have upheld such a complaint had there not been a tidal wave of public anger behind it”.

He concludes “With complaints about the notorious column on the grounds of harassment, inaccuracy and racial discrimination dismissed by IPSO, this ruling will have no effect on the conduct of the press”. None at all. Remember, the BBC had the chance to grill Victoria Newton on this episode last December, and instead ended up with Laura Kuenssberg wiping her arse.

Today’s Sun has a one-line teaser “JEREMY CLARKSON: IPSO UPHOLDS COMPLAINT - SEE PAGE 17” at the foot of its front page. Not “THIS PAPER PUBLISHED A SLICE OF HATE SPEECH SO VILE THAT IT HAD TO BE TAKEN DOWN TWO DAYS LATER”. Once again, it is as if Leveson never happened. Our free and fearless press will just carry on as before.

IPSO actually took action. But Clarkson and the Sun still got away with it.

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