[yokohama11]

There's a huge difference between being considered a "serious" TV personality and an "unserious" one, and what your public image is.

And even then, it depends on audience. FOX News personalities express far worse sentiments daily and mean them than Clarkson ever has. Their audience is fine with that.

Paula Deen was supposed to be a nice upstanding older woman showing people cooking. Even the claim that she might have used a racial slur in the past torpedoed her career.

Clarkson's public image, and one that he intentionally curates, is one of being bombastic and politically incorrect. He can crack whatever jokes he wants without it going to hurt his career in the US. In some respects, Howard Stern might be a good comparison of someone with a fairly similar type of image.

[foldr]

There is no comparable mainstream show in the US with a presenter as openly racist and offensive as Clarkson. Nor could there be, because they would be fired (as my and your examples show). I wouldn't necessarily say that the US is "less racist" than the UK on the whole, but to the credit of the former, it is hard to imagine a US show about cars being presented exclusively by openly bigoted white dudes.

[avereveard]

I've yet to hear an actual propf of him being openely racist. There was that outtake never shown on tv when he said thw n word as part of an old rymhe that was what it was.

Can't find much more beyond that. Some wanton racism on their trips, played on stereotipes and misunderstanding, but critiquing vietnamese cousine or italian way of driving doesn't sound openly racist.

[foldr]

>I've yet to hear an actual propf of him being openely racist

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/9247835/J...

[avereveard]

oh because it's fine and dandy if you call it 'profiling'

suddenly one point out what other airport are doing calling it by its name and he's racist.

[foldr]

Clarkson acknowledges that racial profiling at airports is racist, and says that we should do it anyway. If that isn't advocating racism, then what is? You are defending the indefensible at this point:

> ...the only possible solution is to introduce a bit of racism. Nobody likes a racist. Nobody likes prejudice. It has no place at work, at play, or in government. But at Heathrow airport? Hmmm.

By the way, you are mistaken if you think that a large number of other airports systematically engage in racial profiling as a matter of policy.

[LoSboccacc]

just because TSA doesn't collect data doesn't mean it hasn't been all over the news for being stricter in searching people of particular ethnicity

moreover if the main smoking gun is a quote by Clarkson himself I'm not really impressed, I mean, what Clarkson DID matters. He's a comedian and you hear far worse things coming out; I mean Colbert said far worse thing and I don't see people screaming and kicking at his door.

at the end of the day one has to distinguish what's fiction and what's reality. can you blame Clarkson for being in character on it's own satirical column? it's not like it happened in an interview.