Question Author
>> July 6, 2010 at 3:48 pm
The BBC has edited out an exchange from Sunday night’s BBC2 Top Gear which featured an exchange with his guest Alastair Campbell.
Campbell wrote about this exchange on his blog:
I cannot remember how the subject of homosexuality came up, but I said at one point that he wasn’t very sound on gay rights … Oh yes I am, he said, adding, to more laughter from the largely adoring (of him) crowd ‘I demand the right not to be bummed.’
I had the immediate thought that this was unlikely to be broadcast at 8pm on a Sunday, with Songs of Praise still ringing in some ears, but nonetheless chipped in that I suspected he was worried that he might like it. He seemed to enjoy that, and recalled his public school education, though without any detail.
Needless to say the BBC edited out Clarkson’s homophobic remarks in order to maintain his cult of personality.
Clarkson is paid £1 million a year by the BBC.
In 2007 he was nominated for Stonewall’s Bigot of the Year award for refusing to apologise after being reprimanded by BBC bosses for derogatory gay jibes on primetime TV.
The BBC told Pink News that the above exchange was not broadcast because the section had to be cut down from 25 minutes to nine.
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