Gary Lineker - foot in mouth again

[onegrumpyoldwoman]

I wish this guy would stick to football or selling crisps

Most recently, he gave an interview to Medhi Hassan (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/12/lineker-appears-to-call-oct-7-attacks-the-hamas-thing/ ) where he appeared to minimise the October 7th Hamas attacks as “the Hamas thing”, whilst falsely stating of the war in Gaza “I can’t think of anything that I’ve seen worse in my lifetime”. This statement is absurd hyperbole given that Mr Lineker was born in 1960 and has hence lived through major wars such as Vietnam, Iraq, Iran-Iraq, the Soviet and Western interventions in Afghanistan, and the Syrian Civil War, all of which have cost hundreds of thousands, in some cases millions, of lives.

I do not believe that it is compatible with Mr Lineker’s role as a presenter on Match of the Day, and hence an employee of our national public broadcaster, which is supposed to be politically impartial, for him to take such outspoken stances.

It looks to me like you or whoever posted the link try to find anything to discredit the man because you don't agree with his opinions. It is quite amusing.
Would you also condemn Paula Radcliffe for doing the same, in front of the public ( including children), which she called "an embarrassing necessity"?

@Auvergne63 It looks to me like you or whoever posted the link

I've already said 3 times I didn't post the link, so go and thrown brickbats at someone else.

I am not sure how Gary Linekers upset stomach means that what Israel is doing in Gaza any more palatable but here we are

Gagged how? He’s not broken his contract by the looks of it. You want his contract changed?? Oh well phone his boss and see how you get on 😂

Thanks for the advice - I might just do that, 🙂

Do let us know how hard they laughed…

Watch this space.......🙂

But you agreed with it. Have the courage of your convictions, please.

Agreed with it?

It happened - it's fact.

I have no idea what you mean.

I know I quoted the poster that did and was responding to them

I should have said you used the link to character assassinate him or I just dreamt it?

It’s not a bad idea, phone BBC and state why you are unhappy and then take a stand and stop giving them your money. I have.

In this world, if you don’t put your money where your mouth is, no one will listen.

For the last time, I didn't post that link.

Address your concerns to the person that did.

I think it is quite weird to want to take away Gary Lineker's human rights.

He has the right to freedom of expression.
Because he is famous and works for the BBC, he has his rights slightly limited by his contract. Duties and responsibilities blah, blah, blah.

He does not have to agree with you, you do not have to agree with him.

OP seems to have a loose grip of UK law.

For the last time, you didn't post the link but you commented on it.

The definition is the definition. I cut and pasted the definition from the article and added zero of my own words/commentary to it.

You independently and unilaterally have inferred from the IHL definition that Rwanda was a “mere disturbance” which reflects on to you and your mind. Even though the sentence you have drawn that from is clearly a follow on to an “this also does not apply to…” catch all meaning that it’s not a choice between mere disturbance or armed conflict.

When you first posted your inference that Rwanda was a “mere disturbance”, I rejected it in the strongest terms, as not only is that not the case, it is not what the IHL definition from the Geneva Convention ‘suggested’ to me.

“Regardless, Lineker didn't say this was the worst armed conflict he'd seen in his lifetime he said “I can’t think of anything that I’ve seen worse in my lifetime”.

Ah, but the lead in from the interview was “Speaking on the Gaza war, he said “I can’t think of anything that I’ve seen worse in my lifetime”.

On the Gaza war

War

the interviewer asked about a WAR. So it follows he was responding about how he can’t think of any[war] I’ve seen worse in my lifetime.

The OP certainly thought in that same context…as she listed wars she considered to be worse, excluding everything that was not a war.

@NerdWhoEatsMedlar I think it is quite weird to want to take away Gary Lineker's human rights.

With human rights come responsibilities

He has the right to freedom of expression.

Only up to a point.

At the moment he appears to be skating on very thin ice.

He also seems to think he's indispensable,

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1898541/julia-hartley-brewer-gary-lineker-hamas

Because he is famous and works for the BBC, he has his rights slightly limited by his contract. Duties and responsibilities blah, blah, blah.

It might be blah blah to you but the BBC as his employer don't want to be brought into disrepute by his comments.
If he carries on like this they might want to review their association with him.

My god! A kerfuffle- the monsters!

I'm not disagreeing with you 🙄

Back in December 22 he also tweeted about the “Awful” death of a young Palestinian footballer killed by an Israeli soldier.

What he failed to mention was the footballer was also a Hamas Terrorist and was firing at the soldier when the soldier fired back.

That tweet resulted in a complaint to the BBC, filed by UK Lawyers for Israel, note that Mr Lineker has neither apologised for nor corrected the misleading information in his tweet.

With that in mind it’s assumed he was already on his last warning from BBC bosses who altered their guidelines to employees in an attempt to prevent him from causing further upset to the Jewish community.

If you are in/put yourself in "the public eye" then you have to take the brickbats as well as the bouquets.

It goes with the territory.

That’s because smart phones, Tik Tok and Instagram weren’t around then.

There is nothing going on in Gaza that isn’t endemic to and hasn’t happened in every single war, ever.

The difference is that people are seeing the cost of war in real time, they are seeing dead children for the first time and they are having a normal, human reaction to it.

It certainly doesn’t make it worse than any war that has come before, nor does it make it genocide.

The difference is that people are seeing the cost of war in real time, they are seeing dead children for the first time and they are having a normal, human reaction to it.

This is worth repeating as it is a huge difference. Part of me is wondering if this is the key to us pursuing world peace seriously with the popular and political will to do it. Now that it isn’t just those in the war zones seeing these sights as they happen. Another part of me, the cynical part, wonders if it will just desensitise us and world peace will be even further away from ever becoming a reality because there are some who see these horrors and shrug “well that’s war” and have no urge to stop it now or in the future.