Political blogger Guido Fawkes, real name Paul Staines, made some very interesting points about BBC and their decision to fire Jeremy Clarkson over the fracas incident.
Speaking on BBC, Stains said that while Clarkson should have been punished for his actions, it’s also a matter of proportionality.
“If you have a Christmas party and there’s a bit of a punch afterwards, you don’t close the factory down, which is effectively what you’re doing,” he said.
When the show’s host pointed out that, it’s also a matter of inappropriate behavior and being punished in a suitable way, Staines gave an example of football players being fined or if it was that serious, then the BBC should have just let the police take care of it.
He also reminded the journalist of former BBC employee Mark Thompson, who when he was an editor of Nine O’Clock News back in 1998, he bit the arm of a colleague (!), producer Anthony Massey, and we quote the victim’s account on a report from The Guardian:
“I went up to his desk to talk about some story after the 9.00 meeting we used to have then. I was standing next to him on his right, and he was sitting reading his horoscope in the Daily Star (I always remember that detail),” said Massey. “Before I could say a word he suddenly turned, snarled, and sank his teeth into my left upper arm (leaving marks through the shirt, but not drawing blood). It hurt. I pulled my arm out of his jaws, like a stick out of the jaws of a labrador.”
Guess how BBC handled this case? “He ended up being the director general of BBC,” said Staines.
Of course, that was two decades ago, and it doesn’t mean BBC acted in the right way then.
However, what Staines says next, probably hits the nail on the head.
“It’s clearly, widely known that Danny Cohen [BBC’s director of television] can’t stand Jeremy Clarkson at all. They’ve been at odds,” said Staines. “It’s clear that some people at BBC were dying to get rid of Jeremy. He stands for things that the BBC can’t stand, you know, car driving, smoking, drinking, blockishness”.