[Kojak]

The rule about impartiality on social media is completely right for people that work on BBC News but a guy that presents a football analysis show who's not even directly employed by them? Just seems bizarre to me. Massive misstep. I'm pro BBC but am puzzled about their actions here. This clearly comes from the top and THEIR political allegiances aren't exactly impartial.

Part of the issue (and as evident by the discussion in this thread, there are a lot of layers to this) is for a person in the position Linekar is in (i.e., one of the BBC's highest profile presenters who hosts their flagship sports program), he has arguably sailed too close to the wind generally when it comes to toeing the very murky line between him expressing his political/personal views and the impact him expressing said views would have (rightly or wrongly) on how people perceive a publically-funded media corporation. Yes, Linekar isn't bound by the same strict impartiality rules those who work for BBC News are (and the BBC's suggestion today that he seemingly is is in itself bizarre). However, that doesn't mean though that him (over a long period of time) expressing political views in a way whereby it has a wider impact on how some people perceive a media corporation they legally have to pay a fee to access isn't an issue for said corporation.

Has the BBC handled this incident well - hell no. In typical BBC navel-gazing fashion, they've dragged out an issue that could have been dealt with within 24 - 36 hours into a multi-day story whereby they would be criticized no matter what they ultimately did. Not to mention their alleged 'solution' to the story (i.e., asking Linekar to effectively apologise for what he said) poured petrol to the metaphorical fire when they could have handled this in a much better way (e.g., sitting down with Linekar for a discussion about their concerns with his tweet). However, a lot of the reaction today has been over-the-top at best and hysterical hyperbole at worst.

I think the problem with that argument is that you could apply it to literally anyone who has ever appeared on the BBC. What next - is Mark Gatiss going to be banned because he once said he was 'ashamed to be English'? If so then bye bye Sherlock. What about Alan Sugar? He once compared Jeremy Corbyn to Adolf Hitler! Is he going to be removed from The Apprentice? I think not. And how did Andrew Neil last so long at the Beeb when he sounds off about politics on Twitter left, right and centre (but mostly right)?