"Everything being said" lol. "Involved in a fracas" is all that's being said, the rest is assumptions. So stating definitely "He did X!" is silly. We don't know if any blows were exchanged, let alone who did what to who and when and why.
I bring it up because the BBC has hated Clarkson for everything except the amount of money he generates for years. They're looking to put him into their censorious little box but can't because of the cash flow. This seems like another in a long string of those jackholes looking for excuses to persecute dissenters. At least they aren't throwing him in jail for being mean on twitter like the Brits seem to love to do so much.
Clarkson is hardly a harmless dissenter. He has quite a history of shooting his mouth off, physically assaulting others, and generally causing problems for his employer. If this was a "first offense", we wouldn't be hearing about it, but it's not even his third strike more like the Nth.
I work for a "liberal British company". There is a cultural tendency for understatement, so when I see "fracas", I don't think "polite, professional argument", but a raging fit, if not actual physicality. Clarkson's prior antics support this as well.
Why are you so gung ho to defend the BBC?
Probably because I've seen similar situations play out from the other side of the fence and I'm aware of Clarkson's history.
Why are you so gung ho to damn the BBC? Do you really believe Clarkson is totally innocent and being unfairly persecuted by the evil socialists at the BBC despite him being a cash cow for the network? Or did you just see this as an excuse to tilt at another windmill?
Don't misunderstand me, I like the guy and enjoy his segments on the show, but as a manager, I'm not inclined to tolerate a multi-time repeat offender if the antics become a liability or continue to escalate.
We had a similar situation (raging arguments, threats of violence, but no actual violence) a few years ago with a guy who isn't the revenue generator that Clarkson is. He didn't work for me at the time (he does now), but did work for one of my peers. My peer's manager (who was also my manager) wanted the guy gone, but my peer managed to talk him down on the promise that he would have a very frank conversation with the guy, explain the very precarious position he was in, and promise him that he would be shown the door if things didn't improve immediately. The chat was apparently successful as we haven't had further issues since. He now works for me and I haven't seen a need to revisit that chat. That said, if he were to return to his old behaviors, there wouldn't be the 2nd or 3rd chances Clarkson apparently received.
Chris