Lineker basically called his bosses Nazis? Thatâs a stackable offence.
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Was there a Monday night show presented by matt smith?
Whatever happened him? He was a decent presenter and seemed like a sound fella.
MARTIN SAMUEL
BBCâs treatment of Gary Lineker has given football its Colin Kaepernick moment
In underestimating the Match of the Day presenterâs popularity, the director-general Tim Davie could be facing a watershed moment in broadcasting
Saturday March 11 2023, 3.45pm, The Sunday Times
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Maybe Tim Davie was just never a team player. Heâs an ultra-runner, whose idea of fun is completing marathons. Thatâs a solitary sport, pounding the road for 26 miles. Maybe Davie simply doesnât get what it means to be one of 11; even as the star striker.
This may prove the most overplayed hand in broadcasting history. As of Saturday afternoon, the BBC, our national treasure, had not been able to find a single presenter, pundit or commentator who wanted to work for them, or a figure of importance in the Premier League who would afford their microphones the time of day. Bargain Hunt was shown where Football Focus was supposed to be. The Repair Shop was scheduled for where Final Score should have been. Not that there is much chance of repair for the executives involved in this debacle. There has been much speculation about Linekerâs future at the BBC, but Davie, the director-general, may beat him to the door and not even his chairman â Richard Sharp, a BBC employee so impartial he donated ÂŁ400,000 to the Conservative Party and helped to arrange a guarantee on a loan of up to ÂŁ800,000 for Boris Johnson â will be in a position to help him.
The moment Lineker was as good as suspended for expressing an opinion as a private individual, this fallout was looming. The moment Ian Wright withdrew his support, too, the consequences were obvious. Davie overestimated how much former Premier League footballers need the corporationâs money but, more importantly, he underestimated the popularity of his star presenter.
Lineker poses for photos with fans ahead of watching one of his former clubs, Leicester City, play against Chelsea at the King Power Stadium on Saturday
MICHAEL ZEMANEK/REX FEATURES
When Richard Keys and Andy Gray fell out with Sky, it transpired they didnât have too many allies within the building. Further incriminating clips made their way into the public domain, hastening their departure. They were isolated. Nobody came out in sympathy. Lineker, by contrast, is popular with his colleagues. They are a team. And theyâve all played in teams. They know when a fight breaks out on the pitch itâs one in, all in. Maybe Davie has never bothered paying attention to this team dynamic at tournaments. If he had, he would have seen his BBC employees dine together, unwind together, hit the golf course, travel as a group. Theyâre a squad as much as any in the Premier League. So of course Wright was going to take Alan Shearer with him; and Micah Richards, and Jermaine Jenas and Alex Scott, who is a real hero in this because, unlike the boys, she was not made supremely wealthy by her football career.
Yet Scott will feel an affinity to Wright as an Arsenal legend and a supporter of the womenâs game, and if heâs out, sheâs out; and if sheâs out, no female presenter is going to fill her shoes, no matter the career opportunity. It doesnât matter what Lineker tweeted or whether his colleagues agree with his views. They all recognised the line in the sand. They all saw this decision for the cowardly cowering to government pressure that it was. The government donât want an impartial BBC; they want it subservient. They pretend to value free speech as long as nobody says too much.
BBC rules on impartiality are not Reithian anyway; theyâre draconian. A friend who worked for a regional BBC network was told she couldnât canvas for a political party at election time, even though she would have done so as a private citizen, not a BBC employee. Other BBC staff were issued instructions not to attend anti-Donald Trump rallies or Black Lives Matter demonstrations, even in an unidentified private capacity. Yet what contravenes BBC policy in supporting anti-racism? Must the BBC see both sides of it, for the sake of balance? That racismâs got its good points, and this should also be reflected? âThereâs a kind of notion that everyoneâs opinion is equally valid,â said Dara Ă Briain, the comedian. âMy arse. A bloke whoâs a professor of dentistry for 40 years does not have a debate with some idiot who removes his teeth with string and a door.â
And impartiality never seemed to bother the BBC, or Conservative politicians, when Andrew Neil â who, unlike Lineker, presented political programmes â tweeted on issues including Brexit, Scottish independence and climate change. The most specious argument is that Lineker would have been swiftly shut down if he had espoused a right-wing view. No he wouldnât; Neil wasnât. He once deleted a tweet in which he referred to a female journalist as âa mad cat womanâ but wasnât prominent on newspaper front pages as a result; he didnât have senior politicians calling for his dismissal, or twisting his words to make him the collateral damage in their self-serving culture wars.
Gray, left, and Keys did not enjoy the same support among their collegues as Lineker has
FIONA HANSON/PRESS ASSOCIATION
Lineker is still being derided for comparing government rhetoric around immigration to that of the Nazis; except he didnât mention the Nazis. He specifically referred to 1930s Germany. He tweeted about a troubling escalation in language, married to an aggressive policy. Their reaction was extreme; not the initial sentiment.
Maybe another reason Davie did not see what was coming is that his background is Conservative politics and there is no party that is more disunited, selfish and more bereft of team players than the modern Tories. Inadvertently, in his clumsiness, Davie has given English football its Colin Kaepernick moment. Not that there is a direct correlation between murderous police brutality and a well-paid presenter stood down in his comfortable home but, undoubtedly, as even the BBCâs football coverage on radio went the way of its television flagship, a movement was growing. This could be a watershed for broadcasting; BBC employees do not wish to leave their principles at the door.
As for the ramifications for free speech, good heavens, it is beyond awful, as someone once tweeted. One hopes all those involved in closing it down feel free to enjoy the choices they have made.
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I genuinely donât care says eilish who has about 8 tweets about the subject in the last 24 hours and retweeted Iâd say another 20 tweets opposing lineker. Theres so many of these types around now your man David quinn is another. They absolute seethe like fuck over every single right wing v woke issue. When public support seems to be on the wokies side they almost self combust with passive aggression.
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OâHanlon is an awful gobshite and doesnât believe almost anything she writes. Then on exceedingly rare occasions, she allows her brain to surface.
One such exceedingly rare occasion (the only one I can remember actually) was the Amber Heard trial where she couldnât suppress what she actually genuinely believed and quite rightly stated that Heard was the victim of mob âjusticeâ and disinformation which fed into the trial process and jury deliberations. It was very funny to see her normal Twitter allies go silent.
Thatâs the problem for a lot of these hacks. They pick a side, have âalliesâ and they act as a group to promote each other, constantly commenting on and liking each othersâ posts. They substitute their brains in favour having somebody to respond to them them and âlikeâ their posts. Theyâre internally constrained because they have to be constantly seen to agree with each other in public and back each other up. OâHanlon pigeonholed herself early because of her opposition to Sinn Fein and ended up picking a right group of âalliesâ, all of them being reactionary right wing cranks like David Quinn and Mary Kenny who are professionally wrong about everything. She isnât thick but all she can write is glib nonsense through the medium of the INTERNET language of smirkish. This is all she can do because she picked the wrong âsideâ - the side of professional contrarianism which is obviously wrong about everything - and now she has no choice but to stick to that âsideâ. You can tell when somebody doesnât believe what they say because their posts are glib and completely unserious.
Itâs a very sad and cowardly place to be intellectually.
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Here is our own Ewan right on cue
On cue for what?
Is any of what i said wrong? Would you get away with calling your own employers Nazis?
I wouldnât
But linekar didnât
Heâs entitled to an opinion but he should ease off calling people Nazis , particularly his employers.
OK ewan
Comparing illegal immigration constraints to the Naziâs carry on in the 1930âs is abhorrent.
Lineker is totally wrong tweeting that. You could argue his words are even anti-semetic. I donât think he meant it that way but it could be perceived that way in fairness.
Of course his free speech is to be respected. But there are consequences sometimes depending on what you put out there.
Grow up.
Lineker didnât compare Tories to the Nazis.
He correctly pointed out that the language of âthreatâ, dehumanisation and vilification of refugees was similar to that used in 1930s Germany. A comparison that is objectively correct.
How is Lineker being remotely anti-Semitc?
Is this anti-Semitic?
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1930âs Germany reference let him down. I donât think we would be talking about this if he didnt reference that as a comparison.
For me, it isnt a fair comparision and I can see where the BBC are coming from. (Iâm not particularly a fan of them either)
For me though re immigration, why canât it be dealt with via the usual procedures rather than the dangerous organised crime gangs extorting the most vulnerable on rubber dingy boats which can lead to human slavery etc etc.
Put it this way, you or me wouldnt be allowed into the US with certain criminal convictions etc, should that layer be done away with now entirely across the board??
Head shot
Smashing piece that
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Heâs objectively correct. The UK government and media refers to an âinvasionâ of refugees âpouringâ in when in fact the UK completely shirks its moral responsibility on refugees.
Of course itâs a fair comparison. Even if you donât agree with it (and I fail to see how anybody would) it is objectively fair comment not uttered lightly.
Did you see that David Attenborough has been cancelled for offending Tories with science?
What happened to the âlove of free speechâ you lot were trumpeting? Will you now admit it was a transparent sham and was always so?
I highly doubt youâre a fan of the BBC or the idea of the BBC because you donât strike me as the sort of person who likes the ide of public service broadcasting. Podcasts with demagogues would be more your thing.
You tell me what the âusual proceduresâ are for asylum?
The British would know all about human slavery. Do you think a government which deported members of the Windrush generation who had been in Britain for over 60 years has the well being of any of its non-elite citizens at heart, never mind refugees?
What sort of a regime rounds of refugees and flies them off to Rwanda, which is run by a dictatorship? The Danes do it too (or at least are planning on it) and theyâre equally disgraceful for doing it.
Are you proposing to abolish asylum and the idea of refugees in general? Thatâs what it sounds like.
Is this woman âanti-Semiticâ?
This is the reality of Britain.
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None of them could draw flys to shit. There are no new stars, and really and truly, thatâs what theyâre all worried about.
Iâd doubt Garyâs bona fides here, the best thing I could say about this is that he is opening up MOTD sans third wheel. That speaks to himbut Man City and Newcastle are around a while, why now?