ESC Off: Jeremy Clarkson’s “Lapses of Editorial Judgment” Still Yield him More than US$16 Million

When it comes to British motoring journalist and presenter of the Top Gear TV show Jeremy Clarkson, there’s no middle ground: you either love him or hate him; or, most likely, you love to hate him.

Whatever you may think of the man, you have to admit that his controversial comments have been one of the main ingredients that have made Top Gear the world’s most successful car show.

It’s true that JC doesn’t give a dime (though he could afford to…) about political correctness or BBC’s guidelines. In fact, he does have quite a record of “regrettable lapses of editorial judgment”, as the BBC Trust puts it.

The Trust criticized Clarkson about a comment he made on an episode of TG that was broadcast in February with which 137 people took issue and complained to the BBC.

This time, JC’s “regrettable lapse of editorial judgment” concerned facially disfigured people: when talking about the Toyota Prius camper van conversion that was unveiled at the 2012 Tokyo Auto Show, he compared it to “people with growths on their faces”.

He also slurred his speech to mimic Joseph Merrick, the so-called Elephant Man, with co-host Richard Hammond calling the Prius “the elephant car”.

BBC announced that the ESC, which doesn’t stand for Electronic Stability Control but is an acronym for Editorial Standards Committee, felt that “the remark strayed into an offensive stereotypical assumption not confined to the Elephant Man. As such, the remark was not editorially justified in this context.”

In the meantime, Clarkson has sold his 30 percent in Bedder 6, a company established by BBC Worldwide with Clarkson and TG’s producer Andy Wilman in 2007, as a way to increase his income without taking the money directly from the license fee.

Poor old Jeremy will receive a paltry £10-15 million (US$16-24 million) from Bedder 6, depending on its performance.

Mind you, that’s on top of the £2.7 million (US$4.3 million) dividend he got from April 2011 until April 2012, up from £1.8 million (US$2.9 million) the previous year.

A man has to make a living, though, so on top of his appearances at TG, for which he is rumored to be paid around half a million pounds per year, his “talent fee” paycheck was bumped up by 30 percent, to £456,000.

So, regardless what the Standards Committee may “feel”, dear old JC is laughing all the way to the bank, probably riding on the back of an elephant, or better yet, behind the wheel of a gold-plated Huayra/F12/Veyron/Phantom – take your pick…

By Andrew Tsaousis

Story References: The Guardian & The Telegraph

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