Dumping Gary Lineker is a self-destructive move the BBC will live to regret
4 months, 2 weeks ago

Dumping Gary Lineker is a self-destructive move the BBC will live to regret

The Independent  

Watching the flagship BBC News at 10 programme on Monday night, you might have been forgiven for thinking all was well in the world – that Gaza was no longer a killing field, that Ukraine was safe from Putin, that the planet had started to cool down. Indeed, after he comprehensively outflanked the BBC’s director general last March, when his disciplinary suspension for anti-government social media posts was speedily reversed following the entire football reporting team withdrawing their labour in solidarity, there is an argument that he is bigger than the corporation itself. As Katie Razzall, the BBC’s media editor, reported on the news, Lineker has not been offered a contract extension; he wanted to stay on, at least for a bit longer. He learned from his mentor, Des Lynam, a way of treating his subject with importance but not reverence, able to recognise its essential absurdity without undermining its consequence Which, if true, must constitute one of the most self-destructive executive moves in television history. Plus, you suspect other broadcasters will be watching the BBC’s profligacy with some attention, particularly in the US, where the growing market for English football could easily find room for a broadcaster of his prominence.

History of this topic

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