[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".

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Where are they going to find these impartial presenters?
"The war in Ukraine... it is what it is. May the best uns win".
"15 000 Covid deaths today. I remain neutral in whether this is a good or a bad thing but we can all agree to take the positives. Or the negatives, depending on what your personal outlook is. I'm not going to take sides here u know. Some of them may have wanted to live, some may have wanted to die."
"So I heard someone shot fifty twelve kiddos in a school in Wales today. My condoleances... oh shit, I'm siding with the kids and the parents now... Anyone got a new job for me?"

It is utterly IMPOSSIBLE to find impartial people unless they can only recruit insanely sick human beings without any emotions or opinions. EVERYONE is partial.

Where are they going to find these impartial presenters?
"The war in Ukraine... it is what it is. May the best uns win".
"15 000 Covid deaths today. I remain neutral in whether this is a good or a bad thing but we can all agree to take the positives. Or the negatives, depending on what your personal outlook is. I'm not going to take sides here u know. Some of them may have wanted to live, some may have wanted to die."
"So I heard someone shot fifty twelve kiddos in a school in Wales today. My condoleances... oh shit, I'm siding with the kids and the parents now... Anyone got a new job for me?"

It is utterly IMPOSSIBLE to find impartial people unless they can only recruit insanely sick human beings without any emotions or opinions. EVERYONE is partial.

Everyone can have an opinion it’s the expressing of it ithat is the issue, in this instance.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Less balls about Leicester, more about our flair.

What's not to like?

 

[rogersix]

That would be a RESULT. More football, fewer opinions and banter.

and more ammorality, nice one

 

[ManOfSussex]

It’s certainly me out. Sky 30 min highlights are better anyway

Me as well. Recording cancelled and series link removed.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Me as well. Recording cancelled and series link removed.

Nice statement, well made.

 

[lawros left foot]

Google how to complain to the BBC. It’s owned by us,make your voice heard.

 

[highflyer]

Bit weird as about the only people i have heard giving a shit is Tory MPs. So assume pressure has been applied.

Opens a massive can of worms.

Stand by for ENDLESS 'storms in teacups' over bbc personalities that have voiced an opinion of some kind.

Which is probably the point,

 

[BBassic]

 

[Thunder Bolt]

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.

Let me introduce you to Alf Dubs. A Czech Jew who aged 6, managed to get on the Kindertransport organised by the wonderful Nicolas Winton who saved 669 children from the death camps.
He is now a peer in the House of Lords.

 

[Weststander]

I agree that BBC presenters (and other staff) need to be impartial in their work for the BBC. Independence from government is a core tenet of the BBC Charter. But this doesn't mean that presenters such as GL need to be impartial in other aspects of their life that have 0% to do with the BBC or the programme that they present. What Lineker said had absolutely no reason to call into question the impartiality of the BBC. Anyone who read his tweet and thought that he was expressing the views of the BBC needs their head examined. But - ironically - the fact that the BBC has clearly bowed to pressure from the government is further evidence that we are moving in a very worrying direction. We're not 1930s Germany yet. But the BBC has, perhaps unwittingly, taken us a tiny step closer.

This country bears no relation to 1930’s Germany. Millions were on the road to be murdered for being Jewish or Gypsies, gay, academics, left wing, Slavs or black.

In Dec 2024 Labour will form a government. Starmer will not be inheriting a nation or a people, remotely like Germany from January 1933. The airwaves are filled with people siding with Lineker, in 1930’s Germany doing the equivalent would’ve been a death sentence or being beaten to a pulp by the SA or SS.

Braverman and then Lineker has raised the rhetoric, both are exaggerating and some. It helps no one, just fuelling the polarisation of views in a media and social media age.

Meanwhile Sweden, Germany, Italy and France almost automatically are deporting vast numbers of Albanians. Under the radar in eternally navel-gazing UK.
https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/43750/eu-countries-again-carrying-out-more-deportations

 

[Nobby]

Not at all, BBC presenters should be impartial.

The mere fact that Linekar references 1930s Germany and the government in the same tweet is enough.

Fine lines……

 

[rogersix]

Presenters and that is all he is. Remember that.

i didn't forget

 

[GT49er]

No, it isn't splitting hairs, It is deliberately exaggerating to make it into a witch hunt.

No, the introduction of Nazi Germany into the debate was the witch hunt (Braveman being the witch, of course). Objecting to the proposals was fine - adding the Nazi Germany bit was just silly and unnecessary, and did nothing to enhance his arguement. In fact, as results have shown, it has detracted from his case by moving the focus elsewhere. Silly boy.

As I said, good excuse for a change at MOTD anyway!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

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.

It didn't start with rounding up those groups of people. It started with language dehumanising them, slowly step by step, until the public didn't care about those people. It took over seven years to accomplish before the death camps started.
The bill that Sunak is trying to introduce is the next step. Imprisonment without trial.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

No, the introduction of Nazi Germany into the debate was the witch hunt (Braveman being the witch, of course). Objecting to the proposals was fine - adding the Nazi Germany bit was just silly and unnecessary, and did nothing to enhance his arguement. In fact, as results have shown, it has detracted from his case by moving the focus elsewhere. Silly boy.

As I said, good excuse for a change at MOTD anyway!

He didn't say Nazi so why do you keep saying he did?

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

I agree that BBC presenters (and other staff) need to be impartial in their work for the BBC. Independence from government is a core tenet of the BBC Charter. But this doesn't mean that presenters such as GL need to be impartial in other aspects of their life that have 0% to do with the BBC or the programme that they present. What Lineker said had absolutely no reason to call into question the impartiality of the BBC. Anyone who read his tweet and thought that he was expressing the views of the BBC needs their head examined. But - ironically - the fact that the BBC has clearly bowed to pressure from the government is further evidence that we are moving in a very worrying direction. We're not 1930s Germany yet. But the BBC has, perhaps unwittingly, taken us a tiny step closer.

Who pays him?

That is potentially a breach of contract (without knowing precise detail of his contract).

 

[jcdenton08]

He didn't say Nazi so why do you keep saying he did?

Exactly the point I made when you challenged me on it…

Edit: I appreciate you don’t like me but I’m playing the ball not the player…

 

[macbeth]

what a load of rubbish this all is. why should lineker have to apologise for anything. the bbc are totally subservient to the the goons in the tory party. no problem with alan sugar criticising the strikes, why is that not a ‘party political issue’? (though i suppose starmer isn’t overly supportive of the strikes himself, but that’s a separate can of worms).

same thing goes for the attenborough thing. how can not airing a planetary show for fear of right wing backlash be remotely defensible??

notice there was no issue either with the bbc chairman himself being a tory donor. the bbc is a sad husk of the organisation it once was.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

A reminder that Lord Sugar fronts a primetime BBC show.

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And you know he wasn’t spoken to because…….

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

There is no mention of the government in his tweet.

Then you’re being deliberately obtuse.

What is the context of the tweet?