Poor Old Gary Lineker

[The_DADDY]

Just now, XPertByExperien said:

Like I said on some Political thread last week, contrary to popular belief, the UK isn't the 51st US State, the "freedom of speech" under the 2nd or 3rd Amendment doesn't apply this side of the Atlantic.

 

 

And as I said.. No one actually thinks this. I don't know why you keep saying this 🙄

[harvey19]

On Saturday evening on TV I watched a programme about the life of Hughie Green.

He was a very popular television presenter.

He made a political point or two and his career ended.

[altus]

10 minutes ago, harvey19 said:

On Saturday evening on TV I watched a programme about the life of Hughie Green.

He was a very popular television presenter.

He made a political point or two and his career ended.

Repeatedly, on television - including on the 1976 xmas special in front of 18 million viewers. Not really comparable to a post on a personal Twitter account.

[harvey19]

2 minutes ago, altus said:

Repeatedly, on television - including on the 1976 xmas special in front of 18 million viewers. Not really comparable to a post on a personal Twitter account.

I accept your point but it shows the action taken when political bias was involved.

[Prettytom]

3 minutes ago, harvey19 said:

I accept your point but it shows the action taken when political bias was involved.

But Lineker has shown no political bias. He’s made a statement about refugees.

 

He’s not told anyone how to vote. He hasn’t used his TV show to publicise his political views.

 

Your comparison with Hughie Green is ridiculous, really.

[altus]

7 minutes ago, harvey19 said:

I accept your point but it shows the action taken when political bias was involved.

There have been numerous examples, including more recent ones, given where presenters have shown right wing political bias and no action has been taken.

[melthebell]

55 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

That's open to debate. He may have done something very wrong by breaching the impartiality guidelines of his employer by publishing clearly partial statements on public social media.

 

 

He hasnt, they have all but admitted guilt when taking him back on, hes also been exonerated on at least two previous occasions when the BBC said its ok as hes not a political reporter / pundit / commentator.

I also believe they are reviewing the guidelines.

5 minutes ago, altus said:

There have been numerous examples, including more recent ones, given where presenters have shown right wing political bias and no action has been taken.

That doesnt count though

1 hour ago, harvey19 said:

No it is not, it is what ordinary people considered offensive.

Can't you think of anything except politics ?

Yes thanks......but when its a political issue then im gonna talk politics.

[L00b]

1 hour ago, ECCOnoob said:

<…>

 

As Loob points out.  Linneker is entitled  to freedom of speech, but that comes with consequences when he is contractually obligated to follow rules set by the ones paying his wages.  If he doesn't like that, he's equally completely free to leave and go somewhere which doesn't have such policies.  Maybe if his ego says he's so popular, he should go test it out.

That particular one swings both ways, of course: there is never any consequence for speech that was never expressed, nor should there be.

Now I’ve seen plenty of opinions based on what the opinionated thought his tweet said, about why such interpretations broke guidelines…

 

…but I’ve yet to see any analysis concluding that Lineker’s actual tweet broke any social media guidelines of the BBC.

 

Whereby, there’s certainly plenty of opinions about the BBC’s retraction today (and this thread is a small representative sample of it arguably), but still very little informed opinion about why the BBC retracted.
 

Hint: it’s neither viewing figures, nor ego, nor popularity, nor <insert next bit of victimhood complex here>; it is, very simply, because his tweet did not breach the guidelines.

 

At least you and I, working in our respective ‘spheres’, know full well that when an employer gets to the stage of apologising to an employee, it has gone well past the point of ‘viewing figures, ego, popularity’ and any other notions of the employee being indispensable to the employer’s business: it is at the stage wherein that employee has the employer dead to rights, with the finger poised on sending in the claim.
 

It really did not need to turn into such a circus, and never would have been, if the current breed of Tories and their supporters weren’t such snowflakes, and had the courage of withstanding their populist opinions thrown back to their faces once in a while, instead of continually suppressing dissent.

Edited March 13, 2023 by L00b

[Mister M]

1 hour ago, Al Bundy said:

Linekar has made the BBC look absolutely ridiculous!!

 

It's marvelous.

No the BBC's reaction has made the BBC look absolutely ridiculous

36 minutes ago, harvey19 said:

I accept your point but it shows the action taken when political bias was involved.

What about the political bias of Andrew Neil who for years presented 2 flagship political programmes (not a sports presenter), who quite openly edited a right wing magazine, who regularly tweeted about his disdain for the EU, made various party political points in favour of one side and not the other.

Yes action was taken against Gary L. What about Andrew Neil, Laura K and the rest? Let's have some consistency.

[Al Bundy]

4 minutes ago, Mister M said:

No the BBC's reaction has made the BBC look absolutely ridiculous

Indeed.