Last December, Jeremy Clarkson wrote a horrific column in the Sun about Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Clarkson, much like Piers Morgan, is a disgusting old man with an intense and violent fixation on Meghan. His Sun column was full of lurid, vile imagery about how Meghan needed to be stripped naked and marched through the streets so people could fling excrement at her. Clarkson wrote that column just days after he had a holiday lunch with Queen Camilla. Camilla’s office had nothing to say, and Buckingham Palace was officially and totally silent on the matter – no condemnation for Clarkson, no statement of support for the mother of two of the king’s grandchildren. Later, we learned that Clarkson emailed an apology TO HARRY on Christmas Day.
Surprisingly, there was fallout around the column. The Sun eventually deleted it from its online archives amid widespread condemnation for the tabloid and Clarkson. There were thousands of complaints about the column to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), a sort of vague clearinghouse which “regulates” print media in the UK. IPSO is pretty toothless and non-confrontational when it comes to the bile and hate speech regularly printed in the British media, but this was a special case – Clarkson’s column was simply too incendiary, and too many people were paying attention. So IPSO handed down one of their biggest punishments ever:
The U.K.’s media watchdog, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), has upheld two complaints lodged by women’s rights charities against Jeremy Clarkson’s December column in The Sun about Meghan Markle.
Variety can reveal that after a months-long process, IPSO found that the “Grand Tour” host’s column breached Clause 12 of the regulator’s Editors’ Code of Practice, which relates to discrimination. The case marks the first time in its nine-year history that IPSO has upheld a complaint on the basis of sexism.
As a result, The Sun has been instructed to publish a summary of the regulator’s findings in the spot where Clarkson’s column regularly appears in the print edition, and reference the decision on its front page and website homepage for 24 hours — something the tabloid hasn’t been forced to do since 2016, when its front-page “Queen Backs Brexit” splash was found to have breached press regulations.
“This is the most significant sanction that we would impose for an individual complaint,” IPSO CEO Charlotte Dewar told Variety in an exclusive interview. “It’s not about whether or not people are offended by something or whether they dislike it; it’s specifically about whether it has breached the Editors’ Code. We wanted to be really, really clear about what specifically the complainants thought in the article had breached the code, and then — as a fair process requires — get the publication’s position on that.”
IPSO received more than 25,100 complaints from the British public about Clarkson’s column — an astonishing figure that broke the record for the most complaints ever received by the org for an article. The column led Amazon Prime Video to distance itself from Clarkson, despite his hit U.K. original series “Clarkson’s Farm.” As first revealed by Variety, the streamer won’t commission any new programs with the former “Top Gear” presenter in the future. While Clarkson has thrown doubt on this decision via social media, sources indicate that the relationship is over.
In its ruling, IPSO found that Clarkson’s column made a “pejorative and prejudicial” reference to Markle’s sex, which relates to Clause 12, but did not uphold other parts of the complaint that said the article was inaccurate, harassed Markle and included “discriminatory references to her on the grounds of race.” The regulator’s rejection of discrimination on racial grounds will be of particular interest in the U.K., where racism in the media has been a key criticism by Prince Harry and Markle.
You can read more about IPSO’s ruling in Variety’s exclusive. While I’m glad that at least something happened and there was some acknowledgement that Clarkson’s column was vile, this was a mild response more than six months after the offense. IPSO refuses to acknowledge the racial aspect of it either, focusing more of the sexual violence of Clarkson’s imagery and ignoring the fact that Clarkson seemingly believes that Meghan needs to be punished because she’s a woman AND because she’s Black. And the fact that this is the first time IPSO has ever ordered any kind of punitive action on the basis of sexism… lol. I read a lot of British print media and the sexist drivel which appears in mainstream media over there is astonishing.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Jeremy Clarkson at the World Premiere of Season Two of the Amazon Prime Video Exclusive Series The Grand Tour in Brooklyn. New York City, New York – Thursday December 7, 2017.,Image: 508374398, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS- Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Dennis Van Tine / Avalon
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- Jeremy Clarkson at the 2021 RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, East Molesey, Surrey, KT8 9AU, on Press Day, Monday 5 July 2021. All usages must be credited Sue Andrews/Avalon.,Image: 619797626, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Rights Managed, Model Release: no, Credit line: Sue Andrews / Avalon
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- ITV Autumn Entertainment launch at Television Centre, Wood Lane. Featuring: Jeremy Clarkson Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 30 Aug 2022 Credit: Jonathan Brady/PA Images/INSTARi/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
Did he send an apology to Meghan.
Of course not. As her husband, Harry is Meghan’s owner and master, so Harry is the only one who needs to be apologized to./s
I doubt it, that would anger his buddy, Side-piece Queen Camilla. They’ll probably have another lunch where the gin flows, and they’ll laugh about the whole thing…two broken-down looking old drunks.
No, only to Harry.
From what I understand, he never has. Just a Christmas Day “sorry if you were offended” email to Harry.
According to stories at the time, the bloated skinbag was only persuaded by a business partner friend, Hornsby, to apologize because the blowback might tarnish their beer brand. So he emailed Harry to protect his beer brand.
I knew at the time there would be no repercussions, least of all from publishers’ self-designed regulator. So I set up TV to run one of the bloated skinbag’s Amazon shows, and created an IMDB account to low-rate the show giving commentary about its stupidity and zero entertainment value.
Disgusting.
Vile excuse for a human
I’m surprised they actually did something. It still weak but it’s better than nothing. Clarkson would be better off never talking about Harry and Meghan ever again.
From his perspective, he got attention, with zero punishment, which means he will do it again. Nothing has happened to him, except 6 months later his name is in the news again, for being a vile human being.
England is trash.
What a shame, Clarkson couldn’t have been dragged out naked to be paraded through the street on all fours end wearing a dog collar. That makes me sound as bad as he is, I know.
Clarkson is detestable and repugnant, yet he has so many fans who would defend him to the death. We just can never be free of these arseholes.
Good. This piece was more than deeply disturbing.
Good grief Kaiser, that first photo while I was having my breakfast … yikes. Nearly brought it back up again.
What is it with so many celebrities, royals, etc with such awful teeth?
https://inforrm.org/2023/07/01/sham-press-regulator-bows-to-public-pressure-and-condemns-the-sun-over-clarksons-attack-on-meghan-markle-brian-cathcart/
Brian Cathcart calls out the toothlessness of this decision and that NO ONE let alone a woman editor show have approved this for publication. This sanction is too little and too late.
Sanction has two meanings – 1) a threatened penalty, or 2) official permission or approval.
In effect, it seems like this sanction is more like the second definition.
@Lady Digby: Thanks for the link! Good for Cathcart for highlighting the issues and providing context and details that some of us might not know.
As I read this, the soundtrack in my brain had the song: Too Much, Too Little, To Late circling on repeat.
I’ll never get over Laura Kuenssberg of the BBC( yes I know the bbc has lost cache but still) having the female editor of the Sun on her show the very weekend this article came out and her not even asking about it. Not a peep about it. What a joke to journalism. Kuenssberg asked a softball question about Meghan and just accepted the editor’s response that they’d been fair with zero pushback. And that same editor raves about Charles. So this IPso whatever does what? Let’s the sun write some tiny text at the bottom of the cover. Please, like they care.
Lady Digby, thanks for the link! It’s good to have different sources. I had read this same article in Byline Times a couple of days ago, and it really is so informative as to what’s really happening. The Guardian, for instance, hyped the “punishment” as opposed to how much of a performative slap on the wrist this is. It really gets to me how uneven the playing field is, especially when it comes to Meghan.
@ Lady Digby, great link. Thank you!! That writer truly put out the truth of the IPSO and they are utterly useless and toothless.
At least Clarkson lost his Amazon contract, that was something compared to the IPSO’ks actions.
Thank you, for this link! It’s the reaction I was hoping for. Please, no one ever publish how much money IPSO rakes in from the U.K. taxpayers, on top of the British royals fleecing the taxpayers. That would be too much honesty, Salty Isle might sink.
AFAICT the UK taxpayers are fine with the media they have. And they have the corrupted media they want because it’s needed to support the overpaid, under scrutinized royal family biz they can’t seem to wean themselves from.
Apologies to UK folks who haven’t swallowed the royal Kool Aid. Currently it looks like majority has though. IMHO Brit media and BRFCo are inextricably linked.
Thanks to the 25100 complainants, Fawcett Society and Wilde Foundation as well as Twitterstorm that IPSO took action and found Clarkson’s article sexist.
The Sun should be fined and censured for publishing this article. The editor and Clarkson should resign
@noor, indeed this definitely wasn’t enough, both Clarkson and the sun should have been fined a substantial amount and it should have been donated to women’s charity’s in Megan’s name
They should have been fired, not allowed to resign as that would have made it seem it was their decision. A firing would have sent a message to every other “journalist” a clear message that these types of publications are not acceptable.
Agree with the fine and donation though. And he hasn’t apologize properly so he has not fulfilled his obligation.
I would also like to add, when did hatred get so loud, when did venom get so loud and why is love only whispering
That’s a poignant way of putting it, Mary Pester.
We need to drown out the voices of hate. We can’t rely on institutions like IPSO to do it for us because this ruling is too little, too late. It’s up to us.
It has been a gradual chipping away, starting in the ’50s (red scare, beatniks) and ramping up seriously in the ’60s (hippies, black panthers) and has remained steady ever since (crack, arms for Iran/cash for the Contras, etc) and increasing again in recent years thanks to T***p, BoJo, and the various fashyboy groups. Plus incels and Tatertots. The people in power will do almost anything to stay in power. So here we are.
If they weren’t going to fine them now, IPSO should have issued a warning to The Sun and Clarkson that any future violations like this would result in a fine.
I think IPSO should have sanctioned The Sun and Jeremy Clarkson for racism as well.
What Clarkson described in his macabre fantasy, although inspired by GOT, was a lynching.
Nothing more than a slap on the wrist. It just goes to prove that the tabloids still have the BRF by the short and curlys. The deafening silence from BP when the Scum published Clarkson’s despicable screed says it all.
I can’t even discern how Clarkson was punished. If that is the most IPSO can do then, except it needs to be dismantled and replaced.
Contextually it’s clear the column was racist and dehumanizing. Racism is so baked in to the system that you don’t have to say the words to be racist. And they will know it.
Through the entire process, Clarkson treated the Duchess of Sussex as a non-person. It is this insistence on not recognizing her humanity why he never apologized to her. Instead of apologizing to the Duchess of Sussex, the black woman he dehumanized, and denigrated, he instead apologize to Prince Harry, her white husband, as if she were Harry’s property that he has damaged.
Excellent commentary. It summed up the ineffectiveness of ISPO brilliantly.
I think The Sun and Jeremy Clarkson should have been sanctioned for racism, disinformation, and harrassment as well.
In the full column in Variety, I was annoyed and disappointed to see that they softened and preceded the really offensive paragraph about wanting to see M stripped and dragged through the cities of Britain with feces hurled at her, by adding in something like “and referencing the Games of Thrones scene” before printing his vile words.
There was NOTHING in his abusive and hate-filled column about Games of Thrones and it was something he added in with his faux performative apology.
Many other articles about this didn’t bother repeating his most offensive words either. Someone on Twitter said soon there are going to be articles making Cowmilla’s buddy out to be a victim in all this.
Will be interesting to see if the tone of coverage begins to change — i think it is changing but then i never search for or read UK published stories anymore unless it looks like something positive or neutral about H&M. (Or being very human and flawed — something negative about Khate and Bullyiam !)
And I don’t believe any of the 3-4 articles I read about this mentioned that Clarkson ONLY apologized to Harry either, and not to Meghan. It’s still pretty biased coverage which is sad, considering what this verdict is supposed to represent.
Though it may not address racial component, it’s still a huge slap to Camilla. He’s her attack dog and he got neutered.
GDubslady, but I don’t think he got neutered. His usual article in the paper will be replaced with the decision of IPSO. That’s it. How does that even really affect him or the paper? This is just performative in my opinion.
Word, replaced for 24 hours. This is the opposite of being neutered, he’s going to go harder for Meghan, because the only thing this bullshit organization did is get a comment on the internet, that no one will read, for 24 hours.
They sure took their time! All this shows is how broken media industry is in the UK. There’s no denying that Murdoch has control over this supposed “independent” regulatory body. Is there any wonder that Leverson inquiry never resulted in any changes
I hate him on a cellular level with every fiber of my being.
I have one question about this: do we really know this horrible man apologized to Prince Harry? Because, as far as I remember, Harry said the email was marked as confidential so he didn’t share it during Spare interviews. Then, when Clarkson said he apologized to Harry and Meghan, their spokesperson corrected as he sent an email only to Harry with confidentiality. But, I don’t think we know if in his email, he really apologized.
The only reason to mark an email as confidential is to avoid it being seen by someone who was aiding and abetting. People like him rarely accept responsibility for their behavior, always pointing the finger at someone else. Now Harry is prevented from naming that person.
Another Variety exclusive , that’s interesting 🙂. Seems like there’s things happening behind the scenes to “take care”‘of the offenders. And yes good that Amazon decided to part ways with Clarkson that’s how it Should be as consequences for his vile and disgusting comments on Meghan. Imo for him to lose this deal is a bigger punishment. And IMO, none of the other big streamers will take his show, maybe the ones based in Britain if any, but outside the UK looks like that’s a NO. I believe in free speech, but not in a way where it’s literally threatening another human being that would cause harm. And we’ve known for a fact that Meghan had gotten death threats and these disgusting human beings encourage that.
This kind of epitomizes England, at this point. A fake administrative body, offering a pittance of a “punishment”, with zero consequences to anyone but Meghan.
Please, tell us again how Harry and Meghan need a home in England.
Have fun with the royals you have, they are not coming back, except to work for their charities.
The reason the UK journalists have such low marks-they don’t question the people they interview-they don’t probe how that person arrived at their responses or articles-this makes them seem lazy and easily satisfied -if you are going to attack and smear someone at least give facts that can be checked-as they say they created news or gossip instead of reporting facts.
Seems to me that this punishment is a non punishment because the sun and clarkson and his editor still get away with saying whatever they want about Meghan and any other woman. Especially those of color . The fact that a woman is the head of ipso and is not outraged by that article, just means they are good with it. . After all queen side piece gave it the go ahead and all the others in that cult are still good with it . It’s not like to them Meghan is human . So why demand humanity for her ? This family, the British government, and its media will all have. A special reservation in hell amongst the hottest fire . And I hope it hurts something fierce for all they have done to Meghan and Harry and their children.