{"id":4582,"date":"2023-04-12T11:32:10","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T09:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/?p=4582"},"modified":"2023-04-12T11:35:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T09:35:12","slug":"whats-it-all-about-gary-politics-and-the-sports-presenter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/whats-it-all-about-gary-politics-and-the-sports-presenter\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s it all about, Gary? Politics and the sports presenter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Gary Lineker attending the GQ Men Of The Year Awards 2021 at the Tate Modern on September 1, 2021 in London. (Shutterstock\/Fred Duval)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The UK\u2019s Tory Government is trying to enact an Illegal Migration Bill accused by the UN of\u00a0 \u201cextinguishing the right to seek refugee protection in the UK<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 It has even copied the Australian Liberal-National Coalition\u2019s slogan \u2018Stop the Boats\u2019<\/a> in its campaign to send \u2018irregular\u2019 boat arrivals offshore.\u00a0 This move will almost certainly contravene the European Convention on Human Rights, from which many Tory MP\u2019s wish to disengage.<\/p>\n

It says much about our hypermediated world that this major issue has been swamped by disputes over the right of the country\u2019s most prominent sports presenter to comment about it.\u00a0 Gary Lineker<\/a>, the BBC\u2019s highest paid and most prominent broadcaster, was stood down<\/a> for tweeting a sharp critique of the bill and likening its associated language to 1930s Germany.<\/p>\n

As several co-sports presenters withdrew and the BBC\u2019s football coverage in television and radio was disrupted, including the legendary Match of the Day<\/em><\/a> highlights program, \u2018Stop the Pundits\u2019 became, for several days, the bigger story<\/a>.\u00a0 It touches on many media-related tensions in the febrile environment of British Brexit-era populism.<\/p>\n

The Plight of Public Service Media
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Organisations like the BBC and ABC have long been under intense criticism from the Right, which regards them as \u2018our enemy talking to our friends<\/a>\u2019.\u00a0 The usual accusation is that they have been captured by the Left, pursing a progressive agenda at full or partial public expense.\u00a0 The most self-serving of the commercial media, notably those controlled by the Murdoch<\/a> family, object to the very idea of public service media, seeing them as subsidised eaters of their news and entertainment lunch.<\/p>\n

Right-wing populist politicians, media motormouths and free market thinktanks object to the very existence of independent PSM, which they would like to see privatised<\/a>.\u00a0 Any government can exert political pressure in public and behind the scenes, and threaten retribution via reduced funding.\u00a0 They can also, as has occurred in Britain under the Tories, usher political fellow travellers into key PSM positions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unlike their commercial counterparts, PSM employees operate under strict rules and guidelines of impartiality<\/a> within their news divisions, while those in information and entertainment areas are given greater, though still-restricted latitude.\u00a0 Critics of PSM constantly demand impartiality, which generally applies only to media workers taking political positions with which they disagree.<\/p>\n

When a prominent sports presenter like Gary Lineker says something more controversial than praising or criticising team\/manager\/player performance, and upsets the Tory-aligned tabloids and \u2018qualities\u2019, calls for action are swift.\u00a0 These often involve demands for sackings<\/a>, accompanied by allegations of hypocrisy<\/a>, \u2018wokeness<\/a>\u2019, etc.<\/p>\n

No wonder PSM feel under siege<\/a>.\u00a0 The pressure is compounded by the size of their remit, a workforce increasingly consisting of freelancers (like Lineker) rather than employees, and the demands of a digital age in which institutional and social media have substantially interpenetrated.\u00a0 The ground is constantly shifting, even in a sport zone traditionally resistant to embracing overt, especially Left-ish politics.<\/p>\n

The Politics of Sport and Media<\/h3>\n

In the debates about Lineker\u2019s and the BBC\u2019s actions, much emphasis has been placed on his status as a sports broadcaster<\/a>.\u00a0 Should people in such roles, be they public or private, abstain from political commentary because its outside their remit?\u00a0 Or, for that very reason \u2013 they are not professional news journalists bound by codes of ethics and guidelines \u2013 why shouldn\u2019t sports pundits freely express their political views, especially in their own time?<\/p>\n

The heat generated whenever a sport player or media personality, especially from PSM, crosses a moving line, is symptomatic of the last gaps of the old \u2018don\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u2019 world of sports media.\u00a0 In that golden age \u2013 which, like most, was more alloy-based than pure \u2013 the illusion of sport as its own special world separated from the daily grind was celebrated.\u00a0 Each intrusive demand for social justice was resisted by a sizeable chunk of the male-dominated sport media workforce<\/a> used to playing on a very good wicket.<\/p>\n

Patching holes in this fabric became increasingly frenetic and futile in the 21st<\/sup> century, as a combination of social movement mobilisation and digitisation changed the rules of the game.\u00a0 Sexism, racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, traumatic brain injury, sexual abuse, climate change, \u2018sportswashing\u2019, and sundry other social issues<\/a> could no longer be marginalised.<\/p>\n

After Black Lives Matter and Me Too, and expos\u00e9s of sports corruption and the victims of global sport events, loud complaints that sport and politics don\u2019t mix<\/a> became increasingly redundant, especially as the evidence mounted that it was only a certain kind of political connection<\/a> that was being declared out of bounds.<\/p>\n

Yet sport does not have to be a central issue, as in the case of Gary Lineker, the BBC and the Illegal Migration Bill, to become a sport-related controversy.\u00a0 The very fact that a globally renowned footballer turned broadcaster exercised his non-sport related political conscience in public had a ripple effect across media, sport and society.<\/p>\n

The next twist in this compelling sport and media drama is awaited.\u00a0 It may have been a distraction in the face of the urgent issues surrounding the rights of those who seek protection by desperate, dangerous means.\u00a0 More positively, perhaps for some, in the brief attention space created by truncated sports programming, echoes of the desperate voices of refugees<\/a> rose above the broadcast chants of football crowds.<\/p>\n

\n

Originally published on openforum.com.au<\/a>,\u00a0March 14, 2023.
\n<\/strong><\/span>Copyright \u00a9 David Rowe 2023<\/strong>
\nEmail: d.rowe@westernsydney.edu.au<\/a>
\nTwitter: @rowe_david<\/a>
\nWebsite: https:\/\/westernsydney.edu.au\/ics\/people\/researchers\/david_rowe<\/a><\/p>\n

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The UK\u2019s Tory Government is trying to enact an Illegal Migration Bill accused by the UN of\u00a0 \u201cextinguishing the right to seek refugee protection in the UK\u201d.\u00a0 It has even copied the Australian Liberal-National Coalition\u2019s slogan \u2018Stop the Boats\u2019 in its campaign to send \u2018irregular\u2019 boat arrivals offshore.\u00a0 This move will almost certainly contravene the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":4585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[160,161,22,162,163],"class_list":["post-4582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-okategoriserade","tag-bbc","tag-gary-lineker","tag-media","tag-public-service","tag-sports-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t