To think this isn’t actually the BBC’s fight?

[notonbodycomparisonsites]

Hear me out… I’m not very politically minded. This is my view as a lay person with unlimited access to the news and the internet…

But my personal opinion is that the BBC shouldn’t be held to task like this, not at this time.

They definitely need to assess their policies on who is allowed to say what and when. But the fact is that a public figure disagreed with the government, and the government didn’t want their actions criticised publicly, so they pulled out the ‘we own the BBC card’ and used BBC policy to attempt to shut the matter up. As far as I’m concerned that seems like a misuse of power, and as much as the BBC need to sort themselves out, I’d rather acknowledge that I’m uncomfortable we even got here to begin with!

For what it’s worth, I don’t actually agree with Gary Lineker’s opinion on the immigration matter and the 1930’s Germany blah blah blah… but I’m still glad I live in a society where I got to hear him say it .

So… AIBU for thinking that we should soon be hearing from the government with a little apology for causing such a major fucking mess?

(Please don’t ask me anything about politics)

You think there's a cat in hell's chance the government will or would even consider apologising?
You are correct that you know nothing about politics OP! That's quite the take!

The thing is if you were say a comedian you can say what you like about the government. However the whole point of the BBC is that they are supposed to be impartial, so report on the news not comment on it.
I know everyone will say GL is only a sports presenter, but everyone knows he is their biggest paid star so he is seen as a face of the BBC.

Start paying their presenters far far far less and remove the issue

@Fairyliz you say that but I sincerely didn’t know before all of this that GL was exclusively employed by the BBC. I still look at him and get hungry for cheese and onion crisps. The BBC may or may not have legal authority to gag anybody they employ, but I still find it really unsettling that the government happily let that happen. Rishi Sunak, the man that wants people like me to think that he’s like me, should really just publicly say that he accepts people have their opinions, and that it won’t affect his policy regardless. As it shouldn’t. If anybody’s opinion affected governmental policy I would be worried! Public opinion over the immigration policy is not high anyway so what exactly did GL do that could compromise the values of the BBC? These are all my personal thoughts though, not necessarily all true but I’m struggling to see it another way if I’m honest.

The government wants to take away net nutrality and govern it like real life. This is just another move towards that.

The thing is Gary isn't an employee of the BBC he is freelance. Chris Packham is freelance and I have attached a photo of their response to a complaint about a tweet by Chris. If they had just applied the same logic to Gary's tweet this would have been yesterday's news and no one would even be taking about it anymore.

On the news last night the reporter quoted from the BBC policy and it says that news presenters can't have an opinion ever but that science or sports presenters can have opinions on unrelated topics such as politics. So they need to be clear what their own policy is.......

The BBC made clear some years ago that his views are his own views and wouldnt affect his role with them.

Lineker's earnings are irrelevant. He's not the face of the BBC. He might be the face of BBC football.

He's free to tweet what he likes from his personal account.

If the BBC had an actual contractual term to rely upon right now they'd have used it.

"The BBC made clear some years ago that his views are his own views and wouldnt affect his role with them."

I saw your link elsewhere - it pretty much demolished most of the argument that he can't express political (or any other) views.

This needs to be more widely shared.

They’d all bugger off to commercial telly.

I predict you’d be left with exclusively lefty do-gooder types who aren’t motivated by money and would use every opportunity available to criticise the government. Which I would probably enjoy but there would be less neutrality.

If Lineker had tweeted support of the government policy, he would not have been suspended. Of course this has been driven by the hard right of this country. The Daily Fail and others were wanging on about it for days before the BBC took the action it did.

Andrew Neil owns one of the most right leaning magazines in this country. While he still worked for the BBC on news and political shows he would regularly display his right wing views. He was never suspended for it.

The thing I find hilarious is that the Tories and their tabloid mouthpieces are so frightened of the influence of a former footballer-turned-TV-presenter.

I didn't know he was freelance. They have screwed up big time haven't they?

I think Gary linker is a hypocrite.....he was happy to promote the soccer world Cup in Qatar whilst being paid 1.6 million quid by effectively Qatari government. Qatar has some of the worst human rights abuses in the world. Am I being unreasonable thinking this?

This video from 2018 is on the BBC's website and says,

"Gary is not involved in any news or political output for the BBC, and as such, any expression of his personal political views, does not affect the BBC's impartiality."

What changed in 2023? #IStandWithGaryLineker

twitter.com/implausibleblog/status/1634489134692663296?s=46&t=Uw4lJNwxFZFnX0Xs3doHYg

Sorry this was the link i referenced.

The BBC board is stacked with Tory supporters and they used their powers to shut the free speech of a public figure. If anyone who works in BBC productions aren’t allowed to have political opinions, then where does this end? All the actors on any BBC shows? All the other TV personalities on nature and reality shows? (Like the Apprentice or the Dragons Den). I do not believe the government or the BBC will issue an apology. The Tories think this will blow over and Gary Lineker and their likes will disappear.

As for what is the BBC fight. Just look at who’s on the board. Google Richard Sharp if you don’t know.

Yes, it wasnt my link which is why I cant remember where I saw it and reproduce it here! But yes it destroys the argument. Its really straightforward

@StormInaDcup99 doesn’t matter he is a hypocrite or not. He did not say anything racist or misogynistic and it’s not a hate speech to any groups. He does not like the government’s language or policy. We are allowed free speech.

Yes and no. I would rather have seen that he didnt engage with it but at the same time he apparently went into quite a lengthy criticism of the issues in Qatar while on the show, while on the BBC

BBC didnt seem to have an issue with him expressing strong political views about that WHILE PRESENTING HIS SHOW ON THE BBC, but for some reason doesnt like him having a political view on his own twitter feed which is nothing to do with the BBC

Explain the logic of that

It is absolutely a BBC problem. They are the ones with a contract to GL. They should have resisted the pressure to remove him and they didn't. That alone shows you there's something rotten in the BBC but we all knew it's full of Tory plants anyway.

"I would rather have seen that he didnt engage with it but at the same time he apparently went into quite a lengthy criticism of the issues in Qatar while on the show, while on the BBC"

Correct. He also gave a lengthy interview before the WC started which set out the conversations being had within the BBC before it was aired.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-news-agents/id1640878689?i=1000584550112

@bellac11
@SnowAndFrostOutside
Thanks for your comments.
Yes......based on what bbc has said that in 2018 I do not think he did anything wrong re his tweet. I will investigate more re who is on bbc board

But I am still having this v uneasy feeling about in his part in world Cup......maybe I'm wrong on that score, but I cannot help but feel he has been hypocritical......

It seems Tory MPs whining that GL should be punished have applied political pressure on the BBC. This is really wrong - more so than a reporter being impartial.
If the Tories cannot cope with a public debate about their policies then it's pathetic. This is not a totalitarian state.

I'm so tired of people talking about impartiality. Why was this never raised when Alan Sugar was lagging off Jeremy Corbyn and publicly supporting the Conservative Party on Twitter?! It seems it's absolutely fine to be impartial if you're supporting the government but not if you're critical!