When is enough finally enough at the BBC?
That was the question bosses at the British taxpayer-funded broadcaster should have been asking following the latest controversy with its best-paid star.
A bit of background for those unfamiliar with the BBC’s regular programming: one of the BBC’s most well-known commentators is Gary Lineker, a former soccer player and now sports pundit with a social media following of more than 10 million.
Dubbed by colleagues as the “Tucker Carlson of the UK” over his outspokenness, Lineker presents a popular show called ‘Match of the Day’ and, outside of his presenting duties, has caused a headache for the BBC on several occasions over ill-judged posts on social media that have opened the corporation up to allegations of bias.
And accusations of bias are important to the BBC, which is entirely funded by taxes, because its commitment to impartiality is the bedrock of its founding charter. Impartiality is the first goal mentioned in the BBC’s mission to act in the public interest “serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain.”
Yet over the years, Lineker has made divisive comments on many hot-button issues, including the UK voting to leave the European Union and Conservative Party policies.
Indeed, Lineker’s behavior became so unpredictable that just last year, the BBC updated its social media rules — previously the most restrictive for staff working in its news division — after a row erupted which saw Lineker briefly suspended when he compared the language used by the then UK government minister Suella Braverman about illegal immigration to the kind of rhetoric espoused by Nazis in 1930s Germany.
In an escalation that almost forced BBC director general Tim Davie out of a job, Lineker refused to delete the post on Twitter (now X), even after Braverman, whose husband is Jewish, described the comments as “offensive.”
There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 7, 2023
Hoping to rein in their insubordinate star, the BBC then drew up a new set of social media guidelines for presenters like Lineker who work on so-called “flagship programmes.”
The rules state that presenters are severely restricted on what they can say about political issues during the season or period that their show is being aired. They must also not comment on such matters for two weeks after the series has been broadcast.
Lineker responded to the announcement of the rules by describing them as “all very sensible.”
But apparently, such rules weren’t sensible enough for Lineker judging by his latest misjudged social foray in which he retweeted a post on an account associated with the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign that seeks to dismantle the State of Israel.
The post by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) calls on global soccer’s governing body FIFA and other sporting bodies to suspend Israel’s participation over what it called the “crime of genocide it is perpetrating in Gaza.”
The Palestinian Football Association calls on @iocmedia, @FIFAcom and all regional and int’l sports bodies to take an urgent stance on Israel’s grave violations of human rights and subject it to legal accountability measures. https://t.co/WLgKm4SIKY pic.twitter.com/jpg4JA2rNT
— PACBI – BDS movement (@PACBI) January 13, 2024
The retweet was unwise even by Lineker’s own, admittedly very low, standards: falsely claiming Israel is perpetrating genocide and calling for a boycott of the world’s only Jewish state.
He also opened himself to obvious allegations of hypocrisy given he had no problem accepting £ 1.6 million ($2 million) in consultancy fees from Qatar — a serial human rights abuser that partially funds Hamas — when the World Cup tournament was being hosted by the Middle Eastern nation.
‘In the Qatar World Cup, he received 1.6 Million pounds in consultancy fees’
Middle East expert Tom Gross examines Prominent BBC host Gary Lineker’s ‘hypocrisy’ in his support of the boycott of Israel in international sports pic.twitter.com/LRnS5dvgTs
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) January 17, 2024
But what was worse than Lineker’s post (which he later deleted) was the BBC’s response to it.
Rather than immediately suspending Lineker for flagrantly flouting its rules, the corporation instead ignored criticism and refused to comment on the growing furor. The only comment from inside the corporation came from a “source” who reportedly said: “We understand Gary retweeted this post because he thought it was about football news and wasn’t taking a position. He has since deleted the tweet.”
Sky News also reported that the BBC was not regarding the incident as a breach of its social media guidelines.
But the corporation’s refusal to even comment on the incident — let alone punish the presenter — is compounded by the fact that this isn’t the first time Lineker has promoted hatred toward Israel on social media.
Zionist accounts carry out an incitement campaign against English broadcaster and former footballer Gary Lineker after he reposted a call for the occupation state of Israel to be banned from international football. pic.twitter.com/BPIrCEfPjC
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 15, 2024
In November, just weeks after Hamas terrorists carried out the single biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, Lineker was posting online a message that endorsed an academic who described Israel’s war against Hamas as “textbook genocide.”
The BBC dismissed complaints.
Days before that, he had defended an anti-Israel march in London where protesters screamed antisemitic slogans, with Lineker arguing that “marching and calling for a ceasefire and peace so that more innocent children don’t get killed is not really the definition of a hate march.”
Marching and calling for a ceasefire and peace so that more innocent children don’t get killed is not really the definition of a hate march. https://t.co/qLyIqZKhwt
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) November 3, 2023
On another occasion in 2022, Lineker defended a Hamas terrorist and amateur soccer player who was shot dead after he violently attacked Jews visiting the Tomb of Joseph in Nablus, tweeting that the IDF had “treacherously” taken Ahmed Daraghmeh’s life and described his death as “awful.”
Again, the BBC did not comment and was accused of sidestepping complaints.
After the latest Linkeker episode, other staff at the BBC are reportedly mutinous at the BBC’s paralysis when it comes to disciplining their best-paid presenter.
One BBC insider was quoted saying: “Does he really not look more carefully before sharing inflammatory material? It’s typical Gary. He’s let everyone know where he stands on Israel, then by deleting it he can just carry on as before. When will the bosses bring this to an end?”
Another BBC staffer reportedly told Variety magazine that the BBC’s failure to hold Lineker accountable “makes them look moronic.”
Meanwhile, the BBC’s former head of television, Danny Cohen, said: “It seems very clear that Gary Lineker has breached the BBC’s impartiality guidelines, this time in relation to the specific area on which he presents for the BBC.
The message he reposted supports the racist boycott movement against Israel and the reference to genocide is deeply offensive to the Jewish community. Deleting the post after it has been shared with millions of people does not solve the problem. The BBC’s senior management should act immediately. If they choose not to do so they are proving again to be willfully blind to issues of bias and antisemitism within the corporation.”
According to reports, BBC bosses held crisis talks about Lineker’s future but declined to take action over fears of a repeat of a previous attempt at disciplining him that resulted in a staff walkout until he was reinstated.
So, there you have it: a comprehensive overview of the BBC. It’s a dithering organization that has, yet again, failed to address an accusation of anti-Israel bias; a supine corporation that rewards a petulant ex-sportsman who has repeatedly brought their reputation into disrepute with a reported £1.3 million ($1.65 million) a year salary.
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Photo credit: David Woolfall Creative Commons
