[Football] Gary Lineker to step back from presenting MOTD

[Titanic]

Gary Lineker to step back from presenting MOTD

Gary Lineker to step back from presenting Match of the Day until agreement reached on social media use - BBC statement

www.bbc.co.uk

Gary Lineker is to step back from presenting Match of the Day until an agreement is reached on his social media use - BBC statement.
It follows an impartiality row over comments he made criticising the government's new asylum policy.
In a tweet, the presenter had compared the language used by the government to set out its plan to "that used by Germany in the 30s".

 

[Hamilton]

So, the BBC Chairman can donate to the Tories, advise Sunak and arrange loans for Boris Johnson but Gary Lineker can't call out a policy that breaks international law for what it is.

He then gets censored by his employer, now doubt acting under pressure, a bit like, er 1930s Germany.

 

[Hamilton]

Good

Why?

 

[portlock seagull]

Regardless of which side of the fence (or channel!) you sit, Lineker clearly puts Beeb in a difficult positions with his constant tweeting and should just shut the duck up. It’s not necessary to share his views on Twitter (unless you’ve a massive ego). We can get by thank you without Gary! Could never see Barry Davies, Jimmy Hill, Motty and Sir Des ever feeling the need to do daily.

This narcissist world of celebrity we live in now is over sharing in the extreme. Be quiet! Zip!! Put a sock in it!!! Check your ego’s, from A list through to Z. We don’t really care 99% of time.

 

[Wozza]

Regardless of which side of the fence (or channel!) you sit, Lineker clearly puts Beeb in a difficult positions with his constant tweeting and should just shut the duck up. It’s not necessary to share his views on Twitter (unless you’ve a massive ego). We can get by thank you without Gary! Could never see Barry Davies, Jimmy Hill, Motty and Sir Des ever feeling the need to do daily.

This narcissist world of celebrity we live in now is over sharing in the extreme. Be quiet! Zip!! Put a sock in it!!! Check your ego’s, from A list through to Z. We don’t really care 99% of time.

Narrator: Gary Lineker has 8.7m followers on Twitter.

 

[Rogero]

He was earning far too much . A few years ago z Carol Vordamon was on .£900,000 for countdown and was replaced on someone for £100,000 for the same viewing figures .

 

[Albion Robster]

What a snowflake society we now live in.
If Alex Scott gets the MOTD job, then I'll be leaving this country in protest. The woman has zero presenting skills and very limited football intelligence as well.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

So it’s/ was fine when Andrew Neil, Jeremy Clarkson and Alan Sugar use/ used their platforms to view their political views. It’s fine that Laura Kuenssberg has fundamentally been a Tory mouthpiece for years. It’s fine that Fiona Bruce, the host of their flagship political program, Question Time, is married to a Tory donor. And it’s also fine that the BBC chairman gave Boris Johnson a loan… but a tweet from Gary is breaching impartiality? The absolute state of the BBC.

Put like that . . .

 

[allystrat]

The Beeb just missed a great opportunity to stand up to Tory racism.

Great shame.

Racism? what a load of tosh you talk

 

[Stat Brother]

Hopefully Alan sportswasher Shearer will go as well

Come on we're not a charity we're Great 'f**king' Britain - we can't just be bought off on a whim...




...Saudi Arabia need to put in another order for more weapons and they can have Shearer presenting.

 

[Swansman]

This is shameful. Is free speech only for right wing people now? In what universe is a sports commentator's view anything to do with BBC news impartiality? It's all right though for the chairman of the BBC to be a dyed in the wool Tory though? I begin to believe that the Tories want to shut down other opinions to save themselves from defeat.

Free speech is very expensive - might cost everything you have.

Very few really wants it. Lefties want right-wing people to shut the f*** up and get cancelled. Righties want left-wing peopleto shut the f*** up and get cancelled.

In theory that could make a decent balance (or destroy constructive discussion).

In reality most media owners and executives are right-wing (because they own a lot of money, and the only way to vote for a right wing party without being a complete nutjob is if you're rich), which leads to significant risk of imbalance.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

and that cow Braverman is still in a job? Jees! What a nasty piece of work she seems.

 

[portlock seagull]

So, the BBC Chairman can donate to the Tories, advise Sunak and arrange loans for Boris Johnson but Gary Lineker can't call out a policy that breaks international law for what it is.

He then gets censored by his employer, now doubt acting under pressure, a bit like, er 1930s Germany.

Any comparison to 1930s Germany by a celebrity or their followers is complete hyperbole and displays such ignorance it’s actually grossly insulting and highly offence really. Had Gary used the word Nazi, which he has in all but name, he’d have been dismissed. His ego is now preventing him from simply apologising, and stepping back from the fire. But then Braverman doesn’t either and she’s always exaggerating similarly so both bad as each other really.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

What a snowflake society we now live in.
If Alex Scott gets the MOTD job, then I'll be leaving this country in protest. The woman has zero presenting skills and very limited football intelligence as well.

Do you want to get in early? l'll book a flight for you.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

irrespective of the rights or wrongs, maybe taking Gary Jug Ears out of the firing line isn't so bad an idea, at least to let the tension die down and for the dust to settle.

 

[pb21]

Lineker ...should just shut the duck up.

Why, is there actually a reason for this?

I get that the BBC has to be impartial, but he isn't voicing the BBC's opinion, he is voicing his own, from outside the BBC, privately.

The fact he may have a massive ego, that we don't need to hear from him, and we never here from Des, is neither here no there.

 

[Stat Brother]

It would be nice if his colleagues rallied behind GL.

 

[Wozza]

Any comparison to 1930s Germany by a celebrity or their followers is complete hyperbole and displays such ignorance it’s actually grossly insulting and highly offence really.

That's weird. Actual historians (and Germans) have been supporting/agreeing with him all week.

 

[Swansman]

Regardless of which side of the fence (or channel!) you sit, Lineker clearly puts Beeb in a difficult positions with his constant tweeting and should just shut the duck up. It’s not necessary to share his views on Twitter (unless you’ve a massive ego). We can get by thank you without Gary! Could never see Barry Davies, Jimmy Hill, Motty and Sir Des ever feeling the need to do daily.

This narcissist world of celebrity we live in now is over sharing in the extreme. Be quiet! Zip!! Put a sock in it!!! Check your ego’s, from A list through to Z. We don’t really care 99% of time.

I assume you consider yourself a narcissist then for sharing your opinion on this issue?

 

[GT49er]

Nothing against Gary Lineker expressing disapproval of the Government's policy - that's absolutely fair enough - but as we're not, AFAIK, rounding up Jews, black people, brown people, homosexuals, mentally ill patients, communists, etc. and shoving them into gas chambers or forced labour death camps, and we have no plans to invade neighbouring countries (again AFAIK) his remark comparing the Government to Nazi Germany was fatuous.
Well, whatever - he's been doing MOTD for ages, and he is one of, if not the most highly paid person at the BBC, so this seems as good an excuse as any to save a load of money on his wages, and freshen up the programme with an equally convivial and competent - but much less expensive - presenter.

 

[The Grockle]

Why only him. Lord Sugar has done it.

No impartiality for Andrew Neil when editor of the Spectator whilst also working at the BBC.

Isn't this the cancel culture so many are against?

It does seem like another example of cancel culture which I'm generally against but I just wonder if when you're at a certain level of fame and a key figure of a publicly funded organisation you shouldn't be sharing your political views on a public forum? I'm surprised it's not in his contract. I imagine a headteacher or senior civil servant might also have to refrain from such dialogue online.

I can see both sides of the argument.