It has been interesting watching the online radicalisation of Gary Lineker. It’s just two years since the footballer turned political activist was condemning the government for using “language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.”
Yesterday he shared an image of a rat accompanying a video decrying the evils of Zionists, which is very much language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 1930s.
His posts since the October 7 Hamas attack have been leading to this moment – this ultimate unmasking – as he has carefully pushed the boundaries not only of the fabled and false “BBC neutrality” and of its social media rules (rules that he says he helped to write) but of how much polite society is willing to tolerate in terms of public anti-Semitism.
He’s shared calls for Israel to be banned from international sport and has decried how the BBC “capitulated to lobbying” by taking down a documentary which featured the son of a Hamas official. In the last few days alone – as the football season and his official stint on Match of the Day comes to a close, he has ramped it all up again.
Last Thursday he posted a clip on his Instagram feed comparing Israelis to Nazis. On Saturday he posted one calling Zionists “the most antisemitic people in the world right now” and on Sunday another which said “it didn’t start on 7/10.”And then came the rats.
I once told Gary to his face that he was acting like an anti-Semite. He appeared appalled at this idea so I challenged him to make a post about the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas just to show that he understood that they were humans too. He still hasn’t.
Gary appears to be obsessed by the Gaza war; it has sent him deranged. And yet the BBC rulebook on both social media use and bringing the corporation into disrepute appears to have been thrown away because he has some weird power over its bosses.
Who else would not only be allowed a whacking great salary, but also to become the face of a crisp brand and to set up a media company, with his podcasts, which is a rival to the BBC?
Even as his Match of the Day contract was not renewed, he somehow held enough sway over the BBC to get them to agree that he can stay on for special occasions like the World Cup, as if he was doing them a favour. And they are going to host some of his company’s podcasts, netting him more profits.
Somebody needs to stand up and say this is intolerable. The BBC needs to show that it cares about anti-Semitism by cutting him loose. Completely loose. But I am sad to say I am not holding my breath. They are all too far gone – he is not the only one suffering from Israel derangement syndrome.
It has been interesting watching the online radicalisation of Gary Lineker. It’s just two years since the footballer turned political activist was condemning the government for using “language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.”
Yesterday he shared an image of a rat accompanying a video decrying the evils of Zionists, which is very much language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 1930s.
His posts since the October 7 Hamas attack have been leading to this moment – this ultimate unmasking – as he has carefully pushed the boundaries not only of the fabled and false “BBC neutrality” and of its social media rules (rules that he says he helped to write) but of how much polite society is willing to tolerate in terms of public anti-Semitism.
He’s shared calls for Israel to be banned from international sport and has decried how the BBC “capitulated to lobbying” by taking down a documentary which featured the son of a Hamas official. In the last few days alone – as the football season and his official stint on Match of the Day comes to a close, he has ramped it all up again.
Last Thursday he posted a clip on his Instagram feed comparing Israelis to Nazis. On Saturday he posted one calling Zionists “the most antisemitic people in the world right now” and on Sunday another which said “it didn’t start on 7/10.”And then came the rats.
I once told Gary to his face that he was acting like an anti-Semite. He appeared appalled at this idea so I challenged him to make a post about the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas just to show that he understood that they were humans too. He still hasn’t.
Gary appears to be obsessed by the Gaza war; it has sent him deranged. And yet the BBC rulebook on both social media use and bringing the corporation into disrepute appears to have been thrown away because he has some weird power over its bosses.
Who else would not only be allowed a whacking great salary, but also to become the face of a crisp brand and to set up a media company, with his podcasts, which is a rival to the BBC?
Even as his Match of the Day contract was not renewed, he somehow held enough sway over the BBC to get them to agree that he can stay on for special occasions like the World Cup, as if he was doing them a favour. And they are going to host some of his company’s podcasts, netting him more profits.
Somebody needs to stand up and say this is intolerable. The BBC needs to show that it cares about anti-Semitism by cutting him loose. Completely loose. But I am sad to say I am not holding my breath. They are all too far gone – he is not the only one suffering from Israel derangement syndrome.