10 Mar 2023 23:59:46
Absolute respect to Ian Wright, Alan Shearer, Jermaine Jenas, Micah Richards, and Alex Scott. I would hope no one would be watching MOTD on principal tomorrow. It's not about the subject matter or political views, it's about your right to express an opinion. Isn't what this whole site is about?
11 Mar 2023 10:50:28
I agree Menace, but in fairness the BBC were between a rock and a hard place, do nothing and the government accuses the BBC of political bias even though Lineker’s comments were on his personal Twitter account, suspend him and you get chorus of complaints re free speech, they can’t win. Don’t get me wrong Lineker has every right to express his views which personally I agree with wholeheartedly but I think the BBC may be sounding its up own death knell as a free to air channel, the Tories are already looking at cancelling the licence fee and making it a subscription channel like Sky. The BBC may have issues but by and large it is a impartial news broadcaster unlike some of the other news providers like Talk TV and GB news we need to be really careful about what happens long term to free to air TV.
Glad I’ve got that off my chest?
11 Mar 2023 13:23:09
Arguably though it’s not free to air as the license fee is £159 a year. Admittedly that’s only £13.50 per month, but it’s clear the Tories want to fix something that isn’t broken - just like flogging off British Gas is currently coming home to roost for many people. The backlash seems to be growing as all BBC sports output is now being replaced today. Not sure of the sensibility of putting on MOTD with no presenters, no pundits, no commentary and no interviews. Guess Sky will be the big beneficiaries with many viewers switching- shortly to be followed by an army of BBC sports staff.?? They need to get it fixed by next weekend or their much publicised FA Cup coverage will be completely Donald-ducked ?
11 Mar 2023 13:38:33
The BBC are impartiality rules under section Public Expressions of Opinion (15.3.13) state
"The risk is greater where the public opinion overlap the area of the individuals work.
The risk is lower where an individual is expressing views publicly on an unrelated area, for example a sports or science presenter expressing views on politics or the arts".
So basically they have gone against their own rules.
Would be a nice payout of Licence payers cash if they sack him completely (he can go to TNT Sports).
Maybe it's time labour out in their manifesto to abolish the licence fee - wouldn't impact any villa fans as we never get shown on MOTD.
11 Mar 2023 13:54:28
We need to be really careful what we wish for here, are we really saying we want the biased TV coverage like that some of the pay per view channels provide? The BBC isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it does not display political bias in my opinion and I am more inclined to trust what they say than any other current news provider to be honest.
11 Mar 2023 13:59:17
I wholeheartedly agree with free speech, however Linekers comparison was absolutely abhorrent. There can be no comparison between what happened to the millions of deaths to innocent people during the war, to those people travelling to our country for a better life.I think his comparison is discusting.
11 Mar 2023 15:08:58
Sorry Scotty I totally disagree. Lineker’s comments likened the Home Secretary’s comments with those which came out of Germany in the 1930’s he did not make a direct correlation between the regimes. If you look at what happened in Germany in the 30’s though, the person’s looked to blame the economic woes of the country which were caused predominantly because of WW1 reparations and the Wall Street Crash on a convenient scapegoat,the Jews, now replace Jews with the migrant situation and the parallels are there for all to see unfortunately.
11 Mar 2023 15:34:07
You have to remember that not once did he state or compare to person Germany or the Holocaust.
His comments are true though.
The language used in the governments material is that of the propaganda that was distributed throughout Germany in the 30's.
The government can't deny it which is what is hysterical as they've stuck yet another nail in their coffin for the next election.