The BBC have made a big mistake

Big Big Crisis is not what BBC stands for, but it is an apt summary of the current situation at the British Broadcasting Corporation as a result of the events of the previous few days. 

For many Match of the Day is a staple of a Saturday night in, or a hungover Sunday morning. Presenter Gary Lineker and frequent pundits Ian Wright, Alan Shearer, Jermaine Jenas, and others are popular figures.

But all will be absent from our screens on Saturday night as a result of Gary Lineker “breaching” the BBC’s impartiality rules through his tweets on the government's new asylum policies. 

For any sane human, the backlash the BBC is facing over its decision to pull him from this week’s broadcast is perfectly warranted. As a result fellow Match of the Day faces such as Alex Scott, and the aforementioned Wright and Shearer have announced they will not appear on Match of the Day as a mark of solidarity.

The main quibble with the BBC’s and various MP’s objection to Gary’s tweet is that it is censorship and removing his right to free speech, which is ironic, considering free speech something the government is so passionate about.

Furthermore, there is clear hypocrisy from the BBC. Its chairman is a Tory party donor and continues to employ Alan Sugar even after he openly endorsed Boris Johnson on Twitter and emplored that they did not vote for Jeremy Corbyn in the run up to elections. It is well documented that Lord Sugar is a monumental prick - something which I am allowed to say because I am not the BBC and thus can have an opinion.

For years Jeremy Clarkson expressed his distaste for left-wing ideologies on Top Gear, a BBC programme and was a regular columnist for the famously right-wing Sun newspaper. Nothing ever came of this, all it took for him to be pulled from the air was to punch a producer. But if he punched him in an impartial way then surely that must have been fine?

The situation has undoubtedly been exacerbated by the BBC’s handling of it. As the national broadcaster of the UK they have been the government’s tool to silence the criticism Lineker made of them, probably not the best thing to do after being compared to 1930s Germany.

So what next?

Unequivocally the BBC is in a real mess. They’ve refused to air an Attenborough programme on conserving the environment over fears of right-wing backlash (impartiality, right?), and Match of The Day is set to air without any interviews, presenter, analysis, or commentary.

In the meantime life goes on and football goes on. There are plenty of other ways to consume football highlights that don’t involve the BBC, and if you do choose to watch Match of the Day this weekend… It will be a little different from usual.

As set out by its own guidelines the BBC and its presenters should remain impartial on political matters, however that did not stop them doing a piece calling out Qatar and its various misdemeanours in the run up to the 2022 World Cup. A classic case of double standards.

As more and more people become disillusioned with the BBC and refuse to pay licence fees further problems may yet be beset on the organisation, such as lack of public funding. It may not be long before the company is unrecognisable from itself 20 years ago.