Today’s Sun editorial has made what looks like an extraordinary attack on former footballer, and now lead presenter for BBC
Match Of The Day, Gary Lineker. Under the heading “Score Bore”, readers are told “
WAS it the rise of social media that turned Gary Lineker into a sniping left-wing bore? He seems intent on reinventing himself as a warrior for social justice, endlessly showing off his great moral worth to his Twitter fans”.
Really? Do go on. “Lineker was a talented goalscorer and is a decent TV presenter. For this, he trousers millions from licence-payers … Little surprise he considers the BBC, which pays this incredible salary, a saintly institution beyond reproach … Or that he would deride as ‘a chump’ the Culture Secretary for daring to suggest it could be slimmed down … Maybe the news hasn’t reached Lineker’s ivory tower, but millions are fed up having to pay an archaic tax on their TV to fund the bloated corporation … He should stick to the two subjects he knows a bit about: football and crisps”.
Where do we start with this steaming pile of bovine by-product? To defend the BBC does not place the defender on the left, or any other particular wing of politics. It’s just a term of abuse, as is the claim that Lineker is a Social Justice Warrior, the latest category of people to be held up for demonising and ridicule. We will hear a lot more about SJWs.
To understand this attack, though, we need to look further than Lineker’s disdain for embattled Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, although his passing adverse comment on the man who is regarded as the unofficial “
Minister for Murdoch” will have contributed to the pre-ordered rant. There is also the aftermath of the Hillsborough inquest verdicts.
After it was shown that both the
Sun and the allegedly upmarket
Times had kept the news that the 96 Liverpool fans had been unlawfully killed in the crush in the central pens at the Leppings Lane end of the ground off their front pages - the only national titles to do so - Lineker observed “
As disgusting as it is unsurprising. They have no shame”. To date that has been Retweeted 7,155 times. The Murdoch mafiosi will have been watching.
On the same day - April 26 last - the man otherwise known as Joe Public also passed severely adverse comment on the conduct of the
Sun, telling “
How The Sun blackmailed a #Hillsborough family they would publish a photo of their son dying. And did anyway #JFT96”. This has been Retweeted 4,653 times to date. One of those Retweets was by Gary Lineker. The Cosa Rupra will have seen that one, too.
So when Lineker reacted to Whittingdale’s latest suggestion of doing away with the BBC by Tweeting “
This chump sums politicians up. The BBC is revered throughout the World. We should be proud of it, not destroy it”, he had to be sent a suitable warning. And that warning is telling him Whittingdale is their man, he should not disrespect him in public, and unless he sticks to punditry, they will be after him once again.
Or, to put it another way, “
Nice career you’ve got there Gary. Pity if something were to happen to it”. Tom Watson was right -
the Murdoch empire is a Mafia operation.
It says a lot about The Sun that they consider social justice and moral worth to be things that apparently deserve criticism...
ReplyDeleteQuite soon Murdoch's gobshite boot boys will have to find a new target or a new "issue."
ReplyDeletePutin hasn't been done for a few weeks so that might be one of the upcoming targets. Or China. Or indeed anybody who gets in the way of the Yank and European establishments.
By comparison, the dear old Beeb - already compromised by employing Murdochite loons like Neil - is small beer. But nevertheless important because what's left of fairness and decency in it stands in the way of complete far right monopoly of media.
As with the NHS, the overall strategy is to liquidate any semblance of co-operation and collective social funding of vital assets. Everything is targeted for profiteering by spivs and tenth rate suited up economic hoodlums.
Poor old Gary Lineker simply got caught in the crossfire. But what this usefully illustrates is just how extreme is the Murdoch-Rothermere Axis of Evil. Just imagine what kind of society would emerge if these Winston Smiths ever get complete control.1984 doesn't even begin to describe it - but we're well down that road already.
Nor should we forget that when Jeremy "DickHead" Hunt was running Culture and Meeja he was poised to hand over yet more media to Murdoch until the hacking scandal broke. And with Whittingdale running the Meeja select committee you can reasonably forecast what direction that will take.
The point is their desperation and hate knows no bounds. After all, you could scarcely find a more harmless target than Gary Lineker. Then again, that makes him an ideal target for hard right cowardly bullies and jobsworths.
When it comes to culture, the current crop of Tories see only pound signs. Zelo Street is right in identifying what Rupert Murdoch wants - the BBC reduced to maybe one rolling news channel, and the rest of the TV spectrum a wall of advertorial and Simon Cowell's pension fund. As for radio, a million variations on Heart FM.
ReplyDeleteAlways worth remembering that Jeremy Hunt is the guy who sat through the rehearsal of the opening ceremony of the Olympics and asked where was Shakespeare and World War 2, Through palmed faces and gritted teeth it was pointed out that a) the Olympics are not about triumphalism and military might (well, not since 1936...), and that b) the opening speech by Kenneth Branagh was from The Tempest, which is by one Mr Shakespeare...
Or that on the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death, all John Whittingdale could come up with was how much money Shakespeare tourism rakes in per year.
They see only money. They are barbarians.
Anonymous (5 MAY 2016 AT 12:51). Winston Smith is the victim in Orwell's 1984, not the villain, and Whittingdale is not on the Media, Culture and Sport Select Committee (in fact, the whole parliamentary purpose of such a committee is to hold the Secretary of State to a degree of accountability). This isn't pedantry for the sake of it. Everyone makes mistakes, but these howlers simply undermine what could otherwise be a fairly sound argument.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous at 19:28.
ReplyDeleteWrong(1). Smith told lies and twisted history, as do Murdoch-Rothermere jobsworths. That was his job. He was a victim in the sense that eventually evil makes a victim of everybody, including its perpetrators. He rebelled too late - that was his tragedy.
Wrong(2). Whittingdale was on the committee up to last year. As for someone like him holding the Minister to account for anything......
So, yes, you are a pedant. And wrong.
I think 'Winston Smith' perfectly describes a News Corpse hack or indeed, many of Fleet Street's 'finest'. They spread the propaganda but will eventually become victims of the machine (and sooner rather than later)and will be spat out and caste aside. Many will be jobless and if they had any sense they would do what my good friend & ex-News Ltd writer did 8 years ago after sniffing the wind accurately : got himself a taxi license, grabbed redundancy and is living blissfully ferrying folk around town and imitating Private Eye's A Taxi Driver Writes...
ReplyDeleteGetting near the time that wearing SJW t-shirts will be a good and necessary thing to be doing.
ReplyDeleteHow low we have sunk, when having concern for one's fellow beings is seen as something to be attacked.
Furthermore, Winston Smith ended up loving Big Brother.
ReplyDeleteIs there any better description of a Murdoch-Rothermere jobsworth?
You should update the article with Gary's response:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/garylineker/status/728154785300418560