[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".

 

[Eric the meek]

patel wanted the navy involved, not so far fetched

Didn't she put forward the idea of a wave machine that would capsize small boats?

I think the Rwanda thing was her idea as well. At the moment, I've got her in a slight lead over Braverman.

 

[Billy in Bristol]

it's already happening - players not giving any interviews to the BBC

Bristol Rovers tweeted this

 

[A1X]

Fighting Talk gone

Knowing the career and opinions of Colin Murray, this isn’t remotely surprising

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Jason Mohamed has declared he won't present his football programme today.

Meanwhile the BBC have shit themselves over David Attenborough's final episode of his latest series and canned it for fear of upsetting right wingers. You can watch it on catch up but it won't be broadcasted. The BBC has been taken over by Johnson's placemen. This will hopefully be reverse once Starmer gets in. Which, now, he must.

 

[Swansman]

The bbc didn’t use that inflammatory word but fair enough it amounts to suspension. Where did sacked come from though? You might have the exclusive there.

But anyway…I value free speech but this isn’t a simple free speech argument.

His employees feel he has responsibilities as a face of the company . Not saying I agree with them, but don’t think Lineker warrants being the face of free speech , or a martyr, either.

On a broader level, I think the bbc pays Gary Lineker far too much full stop.

This at a time when it is decimating its local services which are vital to communities.

So yeah, imo it would be a good time to move on from Lineker anyway.

In an ideal world that license fee money would be rediverted to local radio.

I said "sacked or suspended". In this case he was suspended but when you can get suspended for not agreeing with your government, then the step to getting sacked is not far away.

Its a quite simple free speech argument. There's no hate crime involved. There's no incitement for violence. It is Gary Lineker expressing his opinion on a government decision. And getting suspended for it. Its pretty much as totalitarian and anti-free speech it can get. No matter how much he earns.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

His employees feel he has responsibilities as a face of the company .

I presume you mean employers.

You do know he is a freelance and not a BBC employee.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[rogersix]

The bbc didn’t use that inflammatory word but fair enough it amounts to suspension. Where did sacked come from though? You might have the exclusive there.

But anyway…I value free speech but this isn’t a simple free speech argument.

His employees feel he has responsibilities as a face of the company . Not saying I agree with them, but don’t think Lineker warrants being the face of free speech , or a martyr, either.

On a broader level, I think the bbc pays Gary Lineker far too much full stop.

This at a time when it is decimating its local services which are vital to communities.

So yeah, imo it would be a good time to move on from Lineker anyway.

In an ideal world that license fee money would be rediverted to local radio.

so braverman is a nazi?

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

I wonder if Des Lynam and Ron Atkinson would consider coming out of retirement?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Are they the baddies?

The placemen that Johnson appointed to oversee the BBC are the baddies.

 

[rogersix]

I suspect there's a lot of disingenuous support among his peers. Seems to me that a lot of these presenters, pundits etc etc have been playing a waiting game and are now just following suit. Dominoes springs to mind. They've all become too matey matey.

no, they've all decided, enough is enough

 

[jcdenton08]

neil? portillo? paris? clarkson? sugar?

Nope.

 

[pb21]

Knowing the career and opinions of Colin Murray, this isn’t remotely surprising

Sounds like this Colin Murray fella should be suspended too then?

 

[Wozza]

His employees feel he has responsibilities as a face of the company .

Employers, you mean.

That's right. So BBC have rules on what employees (and, indeed, contractors) can/can't do.

Lineker hasn't broken those rules. (They're in numerous embeds in this thread, btw)

Under pressure from the Tory government/press, the BBC has suspended Lineker... while they re-write rules.

Hence the outtrage.

Hope this clears things up.

(Views on Lineker's salary, the format of MOTD etc are irrelevant. )


An example of right-wing media pressure on the Beeb, btw (this was after the BBC said they'd be taking no action)...

 

[hart's shirt]

Meanwhile the BBC have shit themselves over David Attenborough's final episode of his latest series and canned it for fear of upsetting right wingers. You can watch it on catch up but it won't be broadcasted.

With all these BBC programmes being cancelled, one might've thought that there's a few slots opening up in which to show it.

 

[Official Old Man]

No Fighting Talk with Colin Murray on 5Live. No notice, just played a podcast instead. BBC commentators dropping like flies. Will there be live sport at 3:00?

 

[keaton]

Former England footballer Ian Wright has said on his podcast that he is “out” and “gone” if the BBC “get rid” of Gary Lineker.

In an episode of Wrighty’s House, aired on Friday before Lineker was told to step back from presenting Match Of The Day, Wright called the tweet row “the perfect distraction” for the government.

He added:

I’ll tell you something. If they do – the BBC get rid of Gary Lineker – I’m out, I’m gone. I’m not staying there. On his own platform he should be able to say what he wants to say.

Explaining the row, Wright said:

He wrote a tweet criticising the government about everything that’s happening, the human rights issues and everything here and it’s the perfect distraction for this government, man.

Gary’s tweet was the headline news, bro.

They need Gary Lineker to distract everybody because for me it is a human issue, it’s not political.

They’ve got no empathy. The most vulnerable ones are always the ones that suffer, they’re the ones that suffer and it starts with words.

 

[LamieRobertson]

no, they've all decided, enough is enough

Lol and you know this how?

 

[jcdenton08]

Is this an official union approved protest?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Bargain Hunt is quite apt.

It's probably what the BBC will have to do to replace some of its highly-paid presenters.

Let's remind ourselves what the Blue Team bought

 

[allystrat]

no, they've all decided, enough is enough

no, otherwise they would have spoken up sooner. Do you really think they all agree with and support Lineker? Ironically, too afraid now to say ' actually I'm not with Gary on this one'.