BBC bosses are fuming after Jeremy Clarkson attacked them for making him issue a public apology over his N-word shame.
The presenter, exposed this week for mumbling the word while filming Top Gear, reignited the row by saying the corporation was WRONG to make him say sorry.
A senior BBC source said Clarkson’s decision to criticise those who gave him another chance had caused dismay.
The insider said: “This is the last thing the BBC needed.
“They hoped his initial apology would help put a lid on things. By coming out and saying this Jeremy has opened up a whole new hornets’ nest.
“It is almost as if he is throwing down the gauntlet to the BBC when the bosses there think he should just focus on being contrite and learning his lesson.”
Shamed Clarkson , 54 – on a final warning from his employers after previous use of offensive language – attacked them in his newspaper column. He wrote: “Happily, the BBC had a plan. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very good one. They said, very firmly, I should apologise”.
He said an apology was fine for spilling beer on someone or treading on their toe, and then added: “But saying sorry for using the most racist word of them all, and hoping the story would die down as a result?
“That’s like murdering someone and expecting to be let off if you apologise to the dead man’s mum.”
Clarkson said that despite his reservations he had no choice but to comply with the BBC’s wishes after the Daily Mirror exposed his use of the N-word.
He was summoned to a meeting with TV chiefs in London and given the final warning.
Even the £1million-a-year host’s pal David Cameron had distanced himself. The PM’s official spokesman said: “The use of that word, that would be quite wrong.”
Clarkson said: “My lawyer was telling me to do one thing and the BBC were telling me to do the opposite. Eventually I decided to apologise for not making my mumble mumbly enough.”
He said the BBC would eventually find a way to get rid of him . Clarkson wrote: “I’ve been told by the BBC that if I make one more offensive remark, anywhere, at any time, I will be sacked.
“And even the angel Gabriel would struggle to survive with that hanging over his head.
“It’s inevitable that one day, someone, somewhere will say that I’ve offended them, and that will be that. The BBC will take my gun and badge and I’ll be out of the door with a bin liner full of nothing but a few mementos. It’s funny. I’ve always thought that I’d be sacked for something I said. Not for something that actually, I didn’t say.”
He said he found the n-word “extremely distasteful” and said he would never use it as it “wasn’t in his lexicon”
http://www.mirror.co.uk
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