Lineker To Step Back From Presenting Match Of The Day

[choux]

...until an agreement is reached on his social media use, the BBC has said.

Bet he is feeling less cocky now. No doubt he still gets paid. Time will tell if his principles or ego win the day.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64920557

[Peter Pedant]

thank you itch for real news
can we have some more real news please?

The Mounties have given CIIIR a black gee-gee for a present. It is called Noble. Is it a gelding? ( No balls) I think we should be told

ay thenk yew

[Gromit]

The Tory party succeed in getting Lineker banned because he wrote something they didn’t like.

That has caused a crisis at the BBC, programmes being affected, calls for the DG to resign, other presenters supporting GL and concerns about the Conservative Party indulging in political interference.

Another own goal by Tory HQ.

[choux]

Ich, "Everyone who’s a genuine football fan rather than someone claiming to watch it for the first time in decades will probably have seen most of it already." Are you referring to me?

[ichkeria]

No

[choux]

Thanks, Ich. Just for the record I have always enjoyed watching football - the game - without the hype, divas, experts pontificating all the while and obscene commercialisation of a sport. I doubt I am the only one, male or female, holding that view.

[douglas9401]

I think massive credit is due to the England rugby team for showing solidarity with Lineker by refusing to play yesterday.

[bhg481]

Well, according to the Daily Express MOTD had its biggest audience since November without the pundits, so that gives the BBC two options:
1. Carry on without pundits or
2. drop football altogether (there's plenty on other channels to keep footie addicts happy) and spend the money on minority sports instead; rugby, swimming, athletics, badminton, table tennis etc.

https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/1745331/Match-of-the-Day-viewing-figures-Gary-Lineker

[ichkeria]

It’s hardly surprising it got bigger figures: there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
Will Edwin Poots, John Redwood &co still be watching next week?

[royfromaus]

If Lineker was referred to as jug eared there would have been a chorus of complaints following the comment...probably led by Ich.

[gness]

Of course the figures were up. It's like when motorists slow down to stare at a car crash on a motorway. They'd not notice the cars at all if they hadn't crashed.

Tim Davie looked well out of his depth and I guess he's not the only one.

[Bazile]

//Tim Davie looked well out of his depth//

Who he ?

[gness]

Best if you google him, Baz. You'll find out more about him than I could fit on two pages here.

[royfromaus]

Gary Lineker told politicians to get off the football bandwagon...he should follow his own advice and get off the anti government bandwagon.

[Gromit]

The problem here is impartiality, but not Lineker’s, the BBC’s.
So long as the Government select the BBC’s management, then they will always be beholden to them. Blair and Thatcher did it, and now we have a Johnson appointed BBC.
In this age of streaming broadcast media and £Billion budgets, the BBC should be run by professionals with a proven record in broadcasting, not some amateurs who did the Prime Minister a favour or two.

[maggiebee]

Tomorrow's chip paper!

[gness]

A good few more than two, Gromit. :-)

[naomi24]

Gromit, his comment concerning Germany in the 1930s wouldn't have been acceptable to any right thinking person. Juggle politics all you like but there is no defence for that.

[ichkeria]

"he should follow his own advice and get off the anti government bandwagon. "

Problem is, in the "impartiality" argument, for every bandwagon there is another going in the opposite direction. But the pro-government one seems not to be an issue ...

As for Edwin Poots, I'm told he doesn't need a satellite dish for Sky ;-)

[ichkeria]

As I said before, Tim Davie seems a decent chap to me, but he does seem not really to know how to handle this.
He'd have been better focussing on one tweet in particular, relating to 1930s Germany, where he would have had a point, and tried to get some sort of clarification all-round.
Taking the stand he has on "impartiality" and "guidelines", and then, apparently out of the blue suspending Lineker, gives the impression, real or otherwise, that the BBC is being got at.

[Bazile]

//Tim Davie looked well out of his depth and I guess he's not the only one.//

Ok gness - BBC DG

Was he being interviewed or something ?