Mark has a diary up which at the time of writing is on the rec. list which I am afraid is the result of what looks suspiciously like a fake news story dropped on the Guardian by supporters of the BBC Trust Chairman. He is currently under fire for his rather dubious appointment by Boris Johnson and the BBC as a whole for a dispute between a sports presenter and the government over their increasingly fascist immigration policies. Supposed censoring of the Blessed Sir David Attenborough is designed to create more outrage in the media than the actual censoring of Gary Lineker after his comments on the Government. This is literally a case of “look, squirrel” to divert from a much bigger story.
Briefly, the BBC has purchased a five-part documentary series “Wild Isles” from a company called Silverback Films. The series is fronted by Attenborough and is a co-production with the UK’s Open University (OU) and two environmental charities. The series is to be shown in its entirety on the BBC’s main linear television channel, BBC One. In addition it will be available on-demand on the BBC iPlayer service. As a supplement to this, the BBC appears to have purchased and additional, separate show made by Silverback Films in association with the two charities to be broadcast only on iPlayer. Such arrangements are common with linear broadcasting bandwidth being restricted and will almost certainly be linked to free material such as a wall chart being available from the OU. Silverback Films are based in Bristol and appears to have been established by former employees of the BBC Natural History Unit when it was downsized in favour of a commissioning model. They have made other wildlife TV series narrated by Attenborough but purchased by Newflix.
In the Guardian article unnamed “Senior sources at the BBC” told them that the “sixth programme” was not being broadcast linearly
to fend off potential critique from the political right. This week the Telegraph newspaper attacked the BBC for creating the series and for taking funding from “two charities previously criticised for their political lobbying” – the WWF and RSPB.
Now this would be outrageous were it not a fake story. Frankly, the BBC could not care less about the Telegraph moaning about two charities’ involvement. Why then was this “look squirrel” story puffed up by the Torygraph and what were they trying to divert from? More to the point, why would these “senior sources” leak what purports to be capitulation to a political party when one of the tenets of the BBC is its independence from Government (and has been since the General Strike in 1926!)
Well there are two other stories, one of which involves real capitulation to the Tory government, around. The first is the appointment by Boris Johnson of the BBC Trust Chairman, its overseeing body. He just happens to have got the job shortly after he helped facilitate a large loan to Boris.
BBC chairman Richard Sharp made “significant errors of judgement” by failing to declare his role in facilitating an £800,000 loan for Boris Johnson weeks before the then-prime minister recommended him for the role, a committee of MPs has found.
The damning report also found he should “consider the impact of his omissions” on trust in the BBC, and his own appointment.
This relationship was made even more pertinent this week when a commentator on the BBC Sports “Match of the Day” soccer show made adverse comments about a government policy to “reduce the number of illegal immigrants (sic) arriving by boat from France”. Lineker had tweeted about Tory proposals to `arbitrarily remove any right to request asylum from anyone with the audacity to attempt to get to the UK by boat (often because of UK government delays in processing applications to join families). On the face of the Bill the Home Secretary, CrSuella Braverman had to advise that she is “unable to confirm” that the proposals are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (that the Tories also want to abrogate from). This prompted Lineker to tweet about it and Braverman hit back the next morning.
Gary Lineker has said it is "great to see the freedom of speech champions come out in force" after the home secretary branded his comments about the government's new asylum policy as "irresponsible".
Suella Braverman told ITV's Good Morning Britain she was "very disappointed" after Lineker said the "immeasurably cruel policy" had been directed at "the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s".
Ms Braverman said: "Equating our measures - which are lawful, necessary and fundamentally compassionate - to 1930s Germany is irresponsible and I disagree with that characterisation."
The sound of pearls being clutched rolled in like thunder from the Tory shires. A former minister in charge of broadcasting and another friend of Boris who is believed to have nominated her for a peerage in his resignation honours tweeted
What also happened in Germany in the 1930s was the government shutting down the voices of opposition. Dorries should know that as she proposed selling off Channel 4 ostensibly because of its (admittedly) illogical government ownership, caused by a Margaret Thatcher blunder. In reality it was too ‘woke’ for her liking. What the BBC has done over the past few years is suppress dissent from their employees. It does have strict guidelines that news and current affairs should show “due impartiality” in their reports (so a Labour response to a Tory proposal is within guidelines, having to screen an anti-vaxxer to respond to a new round of vaccinations is not). The guidelines also mean that climate change deniers get short shrift on the BBC. What makes the suggestion of outrage even more puzzling is that policies like rewilding and moving to organic farming are encouraged by the government and actively engaged in by the King!
Lineker is not however employed on news and current affairs programming nor is a BBC employee. He is a freelance who also comments on soccer for other broadcasters and is well known as the face of Walkers Crisps (chips) in self-deprocating TV ads.
The BBC forced Lineker to “step back” from presenting Match of the Day while the situation on his tweeting has been “clarified.” Lineker disagreed with the BBC’s spin on his suspension and his co-presenters have “stepped back” in solidarity. This Saterday’s edition will go ahead without any studio commentary.
A source close to the presenter told Sky News that the corporation has taken him off air, as he is unwilling to apologise and admit he should not have made the comments.
Following the announcement, football pundit Ian Wright said he will not take part in tomorrow's Match of the Day programme in "solidarity" with Lineker.
Alan Shearer also said he will not appear on the programme on Saturday night.
The supreme irony is that senior BBC management’s efforts to suppress Lineker have drawn even more attention to the Cruella’s proposal.