During his playing years as one of English football’s famous strikers in the 1980s and 90s, Gary Lineker was never warned or sent off by the referee. It was not until after his playing career that BBC referees blew the whistle. As the world now knows, the star football pundit, host of the BBC’s flagship Match of the Day program and its highest-paid personality, was benched last week over fears that his tweets about the government’s new immigration bill could The broadcaster’s commitment to impartiality was compromised. The sound that followed was the deafening roar of the football world, sending pitches to back linebackers.
After a weekend of programming and resignation threats from other top hosts, the BBC announced on Monday that it would bring Lineker back on the air. The Bieber apologized for “potential confusion caused by gray areas” of its social media guidelines and that they will be subject to an independent review. Lineker will therefore return, along with his co-commentators Ian Wright and Alan Shearer (both walked out in solidarity). with Lineker).
Which is a relief for the fans. But it leaves a question mark on the governance of the BBC. Instead of defending fairness, its response exposed its guidelines as fuzzy and their application haphazard. Current guidance states that individuals identified with the corporation “have the potential to compromise the BBC’s impartiality and damage its reputation.” For example, a sports or science presenter expressing views on politics or the arts.”
Lineker has always upheld his right to speak out on issues he cares about. Broadcasting from the World Cup, he criticized Qatar’s human rights record. If it would have made the BBC uncomfortable, they would not have stopped it. There is no reason why sports or entertainment personalities should not have any space to express their views on issues that matter to them on their social media channels, even if it is inconvenient for the current government. Indeed, other prominent figures from Brian Cox to David Attenborough have done so. Most people are able to differentiate between a sports pundit who expresses an opinion on an issue and a political presenter who does the same. There are clearly limits, but the BBC must err on the side of free speech.
Here the BBC’s long-term damage comes not from a bad call, but from the manifestation of double standards for honesty.
The selection of BBC chairman Richard Sharpe (a generous donor to the Conservative Party in the past) is the subject of an investigation after it emerged that he at one point provided £800,000 in credit facilities to his friend, the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson . When Sharpe was a candidate for the BBC job. Sharp explained because he had an introduction to a government official who could advise on the matter and was not himself involved in making or arranging the loan. A parliamentary panel report concluded that Sharpe had made “significant errors of judgement” and called on her to “trust the BBC and the process of public appointments, to consider the effect of her lapses.”
Nevertheless, it struck many as suspicious that a broadcaster whose leadership has such Tory ties lashed out at a sports pundit who was criticizing Tory policy. Ironically, Johnson spent much of his time in office criticizing the BBC for its bias in the other direction. The BBC’s job is no longer just to see where its fairness guidelines apply, but to ensure that its own leadership is seen as unblemished.
The whole saga is awkward even for the government, despite the free advertising its immigration bill got. As Lineker did in his tweet, invoking Nazi Germany to make a political point is almost always counterproductive and inaccurate. However, Lineker’s broader point was to call attention to the dangerous rhetoric underpinning a bill that essentially makes it illegal to claim asylum in the UK, and which, by the government’s admission, is likely to breach international law. Noting the “immeasurable brutality” of the bill, Lineker was making a moral argument that even the Labor Party had shied away from. Nor does Lineker want to stop talking about the issue. “While the past few days have been difficult, it simply does not compare to fleeing your home to seek refuge in a country away from persecution or war,” he tweeted on Monday. “It’s heartwarming to see so many of you empathize with his plight.”
Then, in a few moves, Lineker has shown the flaws in the BBC’s governance, the cynicism at the heart of the government’s immigration policy and the hollowness of the Labor Party’s carefully curated outrage – a hat-trick from a pundit who knows how to score.
©Bloomberg
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