[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".

 

[portslade seagull]

Just to add the people that matter Holocaust UK have said without mentioning names that it is wrong to reference what's been said to 1930s Germany. Maybe GL should apologise to them

 

[Nobby]

If that had always been a rule Braverman would be living in Tanzania.

. None of us would be here. We are all immigrants.
I’m from Dutch 1550’s and we think 1870’s Lithuanian stock
My Mrs stems from the Saxons

Would be a very quiet country indeed

Bloody foreigners

 

[Wozza]

Hopefully banned for good. I didn't pay my licence to hear him spout his left wing dribble.
He is entitled to his views but not when he works for left wing bbc

Sooooooooo left-wing.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

My sole point is that if you work for a company that requires you to to sign up to not expressing political opinions you shouldn’t. If you choose to, you live with the consequences. I kind of hope Lineker doesn’t back down but I think he might.

I agree with you.

The issue is some of us were musing on the fact that he is not an employee of the BBC but is employed by a private company (his own).

What we don't know is whether the arrangements include him being bound by the rules that bind TV newsreaders and current affairs presenters to not make overt party political comments, or whether he has more of an entertaining type contract (you may be horrified by the political comments that some people make on the BBC - Dotun Adebayo and David Baddiel have made extremely biased political programmes about mistreatment of black people and Jews, for example).

All that said, criticising one MP isn't campaigning for the other party, is it?

The fact the BBC have told him to stand down (while they work out whether he has broken any rules or not) shows that he is not in breach of contract. If he had been he would have gone the way of Danny Baker - sacked in the morning.

I have had 24 hours to ponder this issue and I find that I can't quite work up enough outrage to suggest that perhaps he might have chosen his words more carefully. This is largely to do with the fact that what he said is true. I can see on this thread that the broflakes don't like the fact that people have raised an eyebrow at the BBC's weakness and willingness to roll over for the government. The broflakes are whatabouting on the fringes of complaining that it isn't fair that all the racists and gammons they love (like Bernard Manning when he was alive) have been taken off the radio and TV, and that it is hypocritical that all the lefties and wokies are now screaming about cancel culture because one of their own has been cancelled. That is typical gammon hubris. Nobody is doing any of the latter. Lineker isn't my mate and I'm not actually bothered. Dry your eyes, boys. Dry your eyes.

Ok look, Greg Dykes says the BBC have 'made a mistake' suspending Lineker. Fancy that.

 

[Nobby]

Just to add the people that matter Holocaust UK have said without mentioning names that it is wrong to reference what's been said to 1930s Germany. Maybe GL should apologise to them

Lineker didn’t mention the Holocaust - I would imagine that Holocaust UK would be a tad more miffed if it was Jewish individuals fleeing oppression and tying to get here.
All of this beggars belief really
Tories 1
The rest of us trying to put food on the table 0

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Which is probably why SSN is making such a big thing about it!

These are crazy times. Never before would 'man not turning up for work' create THIS much of a fuss.

And what has it done? Divide people. Again. Just like Brexit, Covid, immigration, etc etc. Everything is designed to force people to pick a 'side' and subsequently argue with each other. At the same time, the country - and its people - continue to struggle. It's ACTUALLY unbelievable.

I’m not sure this has divided people. They are divided anyway and social media is their outlet of choice because shoving politics down other people’s throats is not generally the done thing in real life. I’m a bit bemused by it all from a football perspective because if ever there was a bunch of presenters that won’t be missed it is Lineker, Shearer and Wright.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

. None of us would be here. We are all immigrants.
I’m from Dutch 1550’s and we think 1870’s Lithuanian stock
My Mrs stems from the Saxons

Would be a very quiet country indeed

Bloody foreigners

Yes mongrels, not pedigrees. I think everyone should take a DNA test for fun. I had mine done a few years ago, and it has been updated, so I can now say I got my 15% Norwegian from my father's family, and the 2% Danish from my mother's.
It's fascinating.

 

[portlock seagull]

BBC haven’t miscalculated because they’re

I very much doubt GL has miscalculated. It's a matter of principle. He thought it was right to call out this government's appalling policy on refugees and asylum-seekers. He was right not to cave in to the BBC DG's request to desist from such statements in the future. What has happened since is that the government's policy is coming under more critical examination and the BBC is seen to be reacting to government pressure. Many, many more people are now aware that the BBC is run by Tory party donors and members of the Tory party. The government now needs to be very careful what it does. Much more interference in the BBC and the average bloke will begin to seriously doubt its impartiality. The very thing that Tim Davie thought he was trying to preserve is at risk - and it's not down to GL, it's down to the fact that the BBC is run by people with very clear political affiliations. As you say, there's a lot more at stake than "GL's ego"....but I don't think it's an own goal on his part. Someone needed to surface these issues, and GL has done it amazingly effectively.

Incidentally, refusing to show David Attenborough's documentary in case it upsets Conservative party supporters is another massive own-goal by the BBC.

Beeb have strongly denied this, and put out a statement to this effect and are showing it on BBC3 I believe?

 

[Highfields Seagull]

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.

Sorry, I haven't read the whole thread so don't know if this has been replied to or not.

The thing is, in late 20s early 30s Germany this isn't what was happening either (to start with). I do not think Gary Linkeker was suggesting this is what is, or is about to happen, here today.

But the climate that allowed those things to happen, with the population standing by and allowing it, started with small steps of inhumanity and hate. Distract people from the real problems by creating targets of hate. Convince people that those targets are the cause of all our ills. Speak about them as though they are the enemy. Then start taking away their rights. Then who is the next enemy ... .

I do not think Lineker is suggesting that we are soon to start sending people to gas chambers. But he is right that the tactics now are similar to in Germany. The government are trying to distract us from the shitshow they have created in the country, by demonising a vulnerable and insignificant group, and essentually stirring up hate about them. But as much as the Government would like the man on the street to believe that stopping small boats with asylum seekers will solve all our problems, they're talking bollocks. Fix the country's real problems instead.

 

[sydney]

. None of us would be here. We are all immigrants.
I’m from Dutch 1550’s and we think 1870’s Lithuanian stock
My Mrs stems from the Saxons

Would be a very quiet country indeed

Bloody foreigners

but then someone invented anti personnel ordinance , penicillin and religion .....it's all gone tits up since then , 400 years ago entire villages got wiped out by vikings and no one knew a thing , these days Darion from Cleethorpes gets his i phone nicked by 3 somali refugees and twitter is alight with OUTRAGE ... they are driving us round the bend lads.

 

[Nobby]

Yes mongrels, not pedigrees. I think everyone should take a DNA test for fun. I had mine done a few years ago, and it has been updated, so I can now say I got my 15% Norwegian from my father's family, and the 2% Danish from my mother's.
It's fascinating.

Coming over here using up our wonderful NHS - no wonder we’re all in trouble

 

[Nobby]

Sorry, I haven't read the whole thread so don't know if this has been replied to or not.

The thing is, in late 20s early 30s Germany this isn't what was happening either (to start with). I do not think Gary Linkeker was suggesting this is what is, or is about to happen, here today.

But the climate that allowed those things to happen, with the population standing by and allowing it, started with small steps of inhumanity and hate. Distract people from the real problems by creating targets of hate. Convince people that those targets are the cause of all our ills. Speak about them as though they are the enemy. Then start taking away their rights. Then who is the next enemy ... .

I do not think Lineker is suggesting that we are soon to start sending people to gas chambers. But he is right that the tactics now are similar to in Germany. The government are trying to distract us from the shitshow they have created in the country, by demonising a vulnerable and insignificant group, and essentually stirring up hate about them. But as much as the Government would like the man on the street to believe that stopping small boats with asylum seekers will solve all our problems, they're talking bollocks. Fix the country's real problems instead.

This

 

[Wozza]

BBC haven’t miscalculated because they’re

Beeb have strongly denied this, and put out a statement to this effect and are showing it on BBC3 I believe?

This Countryfile story suggested there were six episodes (now changed to five, funnily enough), with no mention that one wouldn't make it to BBC1.

BBC Wild Isles | Everything you need to know | Countryfile.com

BBC Countryfile Magazine's guide to Wild Isles - when is it on and what will we see?

web.archive.org

And showing it on BBC3 is a total cop-out. They know the typical Daily Mail reader, who might object, would never find it/watch it there.

But let's not get sidetracked here...

 

[rogersix]

Why are the same people defending the publisher over Dahl now kicking off over this?

are you aware of the eventual denouement of that issue?

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

are you aware of the eventual denouement of that issue?

Are you aware of anything apart from bias?

 

[Deadly Danson]

Just to add the people that matter Holocaust UK have said without mentioning names that it is wrong to reference what's been said to 1930s Germany. Maybe GL should apologise to them

No, no, no. He can disagree with them. That's the point. He made a point (obviously to anyone but the most blinkered, a valid one) but if anyone doesn't agree, that's fine. Argue with him, point out where he's got it wrong, make the counter argument but to censor him just proves him right. If Holocaust UK say its wrong again that's fine - that's their opinion. If they are offended then they are offended. We are allowed to offend people, not a problem.

 

[DJ NOBO]

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.

Don’t make a martyr out of Lineker .
He gets paid oodles of money to watch football and has an amazing life ( courtesy of the BBC).

 

[Nobby]

BBC haven’t miscalculated because they’re

Beeb have strongly denied this, and put out a statement to this effect and are showing it on BBC3 I believe?

BBC3 - censorship by showing it on a channel no one has ever watched

 

[Nobby]

The Premier League has told the 12 clubs playing today that their players and managers will not receive requests for Match of the Day interviews, the BBC understands.

It has also said this to the League Managers' Association and the Professional Footballers' Association.

It comes after a number of players last night indicated they would not do post-match interviews with the BBC show, out of solidarity with Gary Lineker.

 

[Wozza]

Glenn Murray is out too!



I wonder when the small handful of Brighton fans supporting the BBC on this will realise they're on the wrong side of history?