Gary Lineker - he really had to go and a warning t against virtue signalling

Part of Gary's difficulty, and I say this as someone who's agreed with a number of his stances in the past, is that he's combined an anti-Semitic trope with statements about silence as compliance. If you're going to tell people that not speaking about something is a problem, you're setting a very high standard of behaviour for yourself there, whatever that thing is.

The rest of my post dealt with the fact that you should be aware of it as a trope, if you have any interest in avoiding being racist. And that even if you’re not, it should be clear that comparing people to rats is extremely problematic. You’re ‘disgusted’ by people who support ‘slaughter’ [this is a straw man; suggesting that everyone who supports the war does so because they want Palestinians dead]? Do you think these people should be exterminated like rats? Do you think the rat imagery is fine?

If everyone says exactly what they think (particularly when what they think = Israelis are rats) how do we trust the BBC to be impartial?

Well, given the BBC sacked Michel Roux jr for advertising potatoes, it’s hardly surprising they sacked Lineker for posting antisemitic propaganda.

I generally like Gary Lineker and am fairly close to him politically (in terms of his professed politics, not the antisemitism). But he’s been an absolute idiot here. It’s true that Israel is currently committing war crimes. It’s also true that a lot of Israel’s opponents are motivated by antisemitism. Anyone commenting publicly needs to take great care not to ally themselves with antisemites.

I submitted a formal complaint to the BBC, not that I was ever expecting them to do anything meaningful in response. Their inaction over SA and now Lineker are disgraceful. I am still ruminating over whether Lineker should be reported to the police re. (now removed) racist/provocative 'rat' social media posts. I'm undecided.

Absolutely. I had always been a supporter of Israel, but now the things that Netanyahu is doing make me want to throw up. He is evil, and some of the people around him are too.

Nah. I think he should do EXACTLY what he thinks is right. He is not dodging the consequences.

“Even if it’s true”? The point of the post was to point out that it certainly wasn’t something I was aware of. I would suggest I’m not that unusual. I can honestly say that I am disgusted by people of whatever faith who support the slaughter and cruelty in Gaza. I don’t need anyone to hide their opinions outside of work. Personally I think the world would be a better place if everyone was more direct and spoke up for those that can’t.

Gary Lineker does not care if the BBC sacks him. He doesn’t need any more money-so he is in a perfect position to say whatever he likes. Like drawing attention to a genocide.

Many people flourish when leaving the BBC. Andrew Marr for example actually has a humourous personality.

Good luck Gary Lineker I'm sure you will find better things to do on a Saturday night.
The BBC lost any credibility when they covered up Savile and co for decades. People knew and were ignored - young John Lydon for example.

I like him. Great pundit, witty and very knowledgeable about footy. Gonna miss him on MOTD.

That's ok! 🙂

'from the river to the sea' what is actually meant by this? I did think that it meant that they want the state of Israel to be obliterated completely.

I don't agree with the attacks on hospitals etc, but the Israeli government believes they are fighting for their right to exist and they're surrounded by enemies. What is the solution?

And Hamas are pure evil, the attacks on October 7th were appalling. The kidnappings, the killings including babies, raping and mutilating young women and parading them around. Vile men.

They're pretty awful to the Palestinians themselves too, if any of them don't do as told.

Exactly. If the Israeli government represents all Jewish people, surely the Hamas represents all Palastinians? GL is a renound antisemite and not the most intelligent of them.

😁doing the usual read & respond. Thank you for not rtft at me.

My issue with Gary Linekar is that he wants to have his cake and eat it to.

For years, he welcomed being named the BBC's highest earning employee - it added to his negotiations, particularly with other commercial deals.

But he also didn't want to be a BBC employee when it came to following the rules/expectations of a BBC employee - when those moments came, he was proudly declaring that he was self employed. So you can't have it both ways.

Absolutely, it's the case that its only the news team who actually have to be impartial - but when you have made yourself the highest paid face of the BBC, I think you have to adhere to those rules as well.

In terms of this incident? I'll admit I haven't followed the story and don't really know a huge amount about what he's said and done this time. But thats because I'm not a fan of Linekar, and I see his face/name and switch off.

Yes, exactly, see my post above. I think all this reductive social media slant is quite harmful.

Well tbf we have seen a lot of those kind of 'protests'.....from the river to the sea is one that springs to mind.

Me too. Critical, in fact.

Yes, this makes me think that he sees a slogan or a meme and thinks, "oh, yeah!" Without reflection.
A bit like when those people chanting "from the river to the sea" were asked, "what river, what sea?" and they couldn't say.
I think it just reduces a very serious, and tragic situation to social media posturing.

This. I agree that Israel’s behaviour in Gaza is appalling and illegal and it was also doing terrible, unacceptable things before this war and being let off, for various political reasons. But thinking that is not the same as antisemitism, and someone with a big audience and public profile should know to be clear about that and not blunderingly associate himself with antisemitic tropes.

And when GL posted about women’s sports it became clear he doesn’t think about what he’s saying at all or bother looking into what’s really happening or weigh up evidence. He’s just posting what he thinks is the woke thing to post at any given moment to virtue-signal in a very tired and basic way. And he’s not bright enough to ask himself whether what he “thinks” makes any sense or is actually offensive before chucking it out there.

If GL thinks that people at the BBC should be allowed to express political opinions, that’s absolutely fine, but he should campaign for the rules to be changed rather than just doing what he wants. Personally I think that the BBC being impartial is hugely important.

It’s extremely disingenuous to say you ‘didn’t know the rat trope was antisemitic’. Even if it’s true that you don’t know the history, it’s pretty clear that comparing people to rats is likely to be problematic.

Most pro Palestinians claim to care about justice, racism etc so you would think they would take the trouble to understand the history of how Jews are portrayed. Middle Eastern media is full of old school anti-Semitic imagery but it’s almost as if no one cares to give five seconds to think more broadly about what they are aligning themselves with/re-posting. Again, strange for an anti-racist movement.

There's a difference from being gagged to calling the death of over 1000 "a Hamas thing".

Personally I don’t think being paid by the bbc should be synonymous with being gagged. It’s just not a very British vibe. Here free speech is fairly central to our lives.

Calling out genocide is perfectly acceptable, however, calling a mass slaughter of over a 1000 Jewish people "a thing" is not acceptable by someone paid by the license payer.