Top Gear ‘breached guidelines’ on disability – WBNews

The BBC Trust has ruled that comments on Top Gear which likened the design of a camper van to people with facial disfigurements, did breach guidelines. An appeal has found presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who called facial growths “really ugly things”, had played on a “stereotypically negative reaction”. It ruled that remarks about not wanting to talk to the camper van at a party were “not editorially justified”. The episode of the hit BBC Two motoring show was broadcast on 5 February. The comments in question were made during an exchange between presenters Clarkson and Richard Hammond, while reviewing a Prius camper van. The BBC Trust’s Editorial Standards Committee reviewed the remarks following an appeal from a member of the public, who had complained they were “offensive, prejudicial and unacceptable”. Previous investigations found the show had not breached guidelines, and the BBC said it felt it was clear the joke was on Clarkson or the camper van itself. At the time the BBC apologised, saying it was “genuinely sorry” for causing upset, but hoped “it would be clear from the absurdity of the context that no offence was intended”. ‘Offensive stereotype’ The committee’s report said the show’s audience enjoyed the presenters’ “sometimes controversial and forthright views”. It found Clarkson’s slurred speech while referencing Joseph Merrick, played by John Hurt in The Elephant Man, was “on the margins of acceptability”. However it upheld the original complaint, ruling that comments near the end of the exchange, suggesting not being able to look at…more detail