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You do to an extent have a point. But this never seems to have to happened Lord Sugar and when they were at the BBC, Andrew Neil (who was actually presenting news programming) and (I’d imagine) Jeremy Clarkson. They all managed to make comments that wouldn’t be pleasing to the political left, but they were never rebuked and there’s never been a great clamour to say they should be taken off air for ever.
I’m sure there are people even in this thread who don’t agree with Lineker, but absolutely defend his right to voice these kind of opinions.
To be honest, it’s the decision that should be discussed not whether people are being consistent in their in their arguments.
(This post was last modified: 12-03-2023, 04:12 AM by
Jon.)
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This tweet seems to be doing the rounds:
twitter.com
...and it's not hard to see why.
Davie did struggle to defend the fact that it does seem to be quite selective who the guidelines apply to and on what they have said. Nomia Iqbal did a very good job at holding him to account.
(12-03-2023, 02:13 AM)James2001 Wrote: I have noticed pretty much all the people across forums and social media who think tonight's MOTD was wonderful are the same ones who support Lineker's suspension and support the government... Just seen someone try to deny their enjoyment of MOTD was based on Lineker's suspension immediately followed by a big rant about Lineker's salary and bias.
I'm very sure that if the BBC just aired that without any of the hype in the news around, there would be a very loud ruckus as to what in the hell that was and where MOTD is.
I think it's becoming all too clear that with two Tories (some with recent close links to the party) taking up the roles as Chairman and DG, the view of impartiality at the BBC is currently warped. You can't just let a furore die down and then suddenly suspend them without it looking like external influences have had their say.
Unless the public and BBC talent revolt continues to escalate then the current government will not be in a hurry to replace them.
In any case away from all of this, it's very sad to see the BBC in the state it's in right now.
(This post was last modified: 12-03-2023, 07:24 AM by
RDJ.)
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[quote="Stuart" pid="20588" dateline="1678581808"]
(This post was last modified: 12-03-2023, 09:38 AM by
Alf Stewart.)
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It's going to be interesting to see if there are any developments today, being a Sunday, and with Tim Davie still out in the US, watching all this from afar. For all the hot air about wanting to resolve this calmly / quickly, I can just see BBC management lazily allowing this to roll over into the new working week - the internal staff meetings taking place on Monday, for example - not even realising how much reputational damage this is doing to BBC Sport (MoTD2 tonight? I suspect it won't go aheaD), potentially severely harming the BBC's sports rights in the future, and the wider BBC, hour by hour.
As has been said many times, it's excruciating that the BBC brought this on themselves.
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(12-03-2023, 03:13 AM)DavidWhitfield Wrote: (12-03-2023, 02:13 AM)James2001 Wrote: I have noticed pretty much all the people across forums and social media who think tonight's MOTD was wonderful are the same ones who support Lineker's suspension and support the government...
I have no doubt that this is correct, but I could just as easily say that the vast majority of people who are most ardently sticking up for Lineker are people who agree with his anti-government sentiments.
Look at the users defending Lineker's right to give his opinion on this site over the past few days for example. Do we really believe that these same people would have all rushed to his defence had he been pulled for breaching impartiality rules by SUPPORTING the government's strong views on immigration? Somehow I think not.
It's not a one-way street. Clearly there are biases on both sides here, which, ultimately, is going to be inevitable in any story with a political element.
If he'd supported the policy, he would never have been suspended. If he'd supported the policy, why would he have posted?
By the time you've imagined the alternative universe where it could happen, you may as well just admit that you're trying to defend the indefensible.
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BBC advertised today's WSL on BBC Two as starting at 12:25pm rather than the previously scheduled 12:15pm. Makes you wonder if it is going to be commentary only.
(This post was last modified: 12-03-2023, 10:11 AM by
TMD_24.)
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Former DG Mark Thompson is on Sunday with LK this morning
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It's interesting that the BBC statement from Friday states that the BBC "consider his recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines". They're talking very specifically about the general guidelines rather than any special contractual matter which only applies to him.
On the basis that those guidelines appear includes a specific statement that sports presenters commenting on politics is unlikely to be an issue, is this whole debacle going to end in a libel case?
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(11-03-2023, 09:13 PM)interestednovice Wrote: (11-03-2023, 08:35 PM)CF1 Wrote: One positive from the interview - I did think Nomia Iqbal's questioning was good, even if Davie dodged much of it.
BBC News in general have covered this story very carefully, of course, to avoid being drawn in to the impartiality debate as a department themselves, but it’s a real credit to the BBC that their News output is still of a high journalistic standard despite cutbacks. Nomia Iqbal is a credit to them.
I think in many ways BBC News have been waiting for this story to expose the pressures they're under. Certainly the odd story here and there coming from former staff suggesting they were under pressure to be more sympathetic to the stories.
A shame really BBC News staff couldn't take the same stand when Emily Maitliss was similarly treated but understandable why that didn't occur. I think sport has been left far more exposed by it's reliance on freelancers.
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3 Breaking News alerts so far this morning
One promoting that a reporter has written something about Gary Lineker
One telling viewers to watch Laura K as they will be talking about Gary Lineker
One based on something said on Laura K about Gary Lineker