Gary Lineker is not the first BBC journalist to expose his toxic views on social media.
Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks. This week, we look at the BBC’s latest crisis involving antisemitism, and cover more media misses.
Another BBC Journalist Shows His True Colors
BBC sports presenter Gary Lineker is leaving the network after facing backlash for having shared antisemitic content online.
Lineker, the BBC’s highest-paid on-air talent, reposted a pro-Palestinian video last week that made misleading claims about Zionism and included a rat emoji. Jewish groups were quick to condemn the post, noting that rats have historically antisemitic connotations dating back to the Holocaust.
Lineker claimed he would “never knowingly share anything antisemitic” and said he had deleted the post “as soon as I became aware of the issue.”
While Lineker was already scheduled to leave the network at the end of this soccer season, he was previously expected to cover the 2025-26 FA Cup and World Cup next summer. Now, he’s “bowing out by mutual agreement” with the BBC, according to reports.
“The BBC’s reputation is held by everyone, and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us,” BBC director-general Tim Davie told The Guardian.
“I think we absolutely need people to be exemplars of the BBC’s values and follow our social media policy. Simple as that,” Davie said.
Shortly before making the post, Lineker had defended his right to express his opinions on the war in Gaza.
“I know where I stand on this. I’m sorry. It’s more important than the BBC. What’s going on there is the mass murder of thousands of children [and] is probably something that we should have a little opinion on,” he previously told the BBC’s Amol Rajan in an interview.
The latest social media controversy wasn’t Lineker’s first. In January 2024, he retweeted, and subsequently removed, a post on X calling for Israel to be banned from international soccer. The tweet was originally posted by a pro-Palestinian account that called for Israel to be banned over its alleged “grave violations of international law.” After receiving backlash from British members of Parliament over the post, Lineker removed it and said he had misunderstood the message.
He once again landed in hot water when he claimed the then-Conservative government was using language that was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the ‘30s.” He was suspended over his comments.
Lineker’s comments didn’t occur in a vacuum: The network has come under fire in recent years for allowing journalists to cover the conflict who had expressed anti-Israel — and, in some cases, outright antisemitic — opinions.
The BBC breached its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times in just the first four months of the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to research spearheaded by British lawyer Trevor Asserson. Researchers identified violations of BBC policies centered on impartiality, accuracy, editorial values, and public interest.
The report uncovered several instances in which BBC reporters had shown extreme hostility to Israel but were nevertheless allowed to report on the conflict. The report identified eleven cases in which BBC Arabic’s coverage of the war featured reporters who previously made public statements in support of terrorism and Hamas.
BBC Arabic contributor Mayssaa Abdul Khalek reportedly called for “death to Israel” and came to the defense of a journalist who tweeted: “Sir Hitler, rise, there are a few people that need to be burned.” Meanwhile, Lebanese reporter Marie-Jose Al Azzi described Israel as a “terrorist apartheid state.”
In February, the BBC removed a documentary on the war in Gaza from its online streaming service after an investigative journalist found the film unwittingly profiled the son of a Hamas member. Investigative journalist David Collier connected the dots through Facebook searches, which the BBC no doubt had the ability — but apparently not the desire — to do.
At the time, former BBC television director Danny Cohen told National Review the BBC “faces a major crisis over their documentary on Gaza, but this is not an isolated incident.”
“The journalistic failings of the documentary are symptomatic of wider issues of anti-Israel bias at the BBC. The problem they have is systemic. The BBC’s senior leadership has tried to ignore the problem, and this has led to the debacle over the recent Gaza documentary,” he said.
Cohen released a report in September 2024 that found instances of extreme bias among BBC reporters; it notes the outlet took no action against five BBC reporters who were placed under investigation for making offensive social media posts after the October 7 massacre. The BBC did, however, fire one employee who described Jews online as “Nazi apartheid parasites” and called the Holocaust a hoax.
The BBC issued a statement in response to the report, saying, “We do not recognise the overall characterisation of our journalism in this report” and insisting that the network has “focused on reporting the conflict impartially, bringing audiences breaking news insight and analysis, and reflecting all perspectives.”
Headline Fail of the Week
A recent New York Times advice column answers a question that is surely on the minds of women everywhere: “Can I Wear a Sheath Dress Without Looking Like a MAGA Woman?”
“Women in President Trump’s circle have a very unified look. Our critic explains where that comes from, and how to style yourself against type,” a subheading explains.
“There is a very specific look associated with women who subscribe to the Trump worldview, one that is sort of a cross between a Fox newscaster and Miss Universe,” NYT fashion director Vanessa Friedman writes. “It generally involves flowing tresses that are at least shoulder length, false eyelashes, plumped-up cheeks and lips, high heels and, as you say, a sheath dress. The effect underscores an almost cartoonish femininity that speaks to a relatively old-fashioned gender stereotype; the counterpart to this woman is the square-jawed, besuited guy with a side part.”
“If you favor a sheath dress but want to avoid its political associations, just think of it as a base layer and consider how you accessorize it,” she advises.
Media Misses
-CBS News president Wendy McMahon announced she is leaving her post on Monday, amid a feud between the network and President Trump, and tensions with parent company Paramount. CBS News is currently in talks with Trump to settle a $20 billion lawsuit in which the U.S. president accused 60 Minutes of deceptively editing a major interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris to help her 2024 presidential campaign. Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, has expressed support for settling Trump’s lawsuit.
“It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” McMahon wrote in a memo to staff on Monday announcing her departure.
–The View co-host Sunny Hostin claims the U.S. is a “misogynistic country” because both Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris lost their respective presidential bids. “This country is a misogynistic country, and this country is a country that, out of all the first world countries, hasn’t been able to elect a female president. That’s just factual.”
Co-host Sara Haines pushed back, asking, “Is there no distinguishing factors to each woman and why they might have lost? Is there no nuance?”