O/T:-Gary Lineker

[laddo]

BBC 0 Lineker 1 (og Davie)
BBC 0 CommonSense 1 (og BBC)

I like to r thinking although I think a 1-0 defeat is being rather generous to the legendary organisation.

[Elite_Pie]

BBC 0 Lineker 1 (og Davie)
BBC 0 Common Sense 1 (og BBC)

I think 'own goal' sums it up pretty well. If the BBC hadn't bowed to pressure it would be a non-story by now, but they have shot themselves in the foot big time. Lineker is the clear winner, and the BBC and Tory party are the losers.

[OchPie]

Meanwhile back in the "realer" world, the Government's "don't assess refugees, just keep them locked up forever at whatever it costs" bill passed its reading in the HoC last night.

The UK will effectively no longer take in refugees (outside a very narrow set of people following a very difficult process) if this finally passes.

[drillerpie]

I might have said this before but I'm really past caring about whether people are right or left or whatever. I just want them to be competent in their jobs.

Lineker is an average at best sports presenter, as are most of the pundits. I would imagine all of them can be replaced by better and cheaper people. The whole immigration issue is a complicated one which gets reduced to partisan cheering instead of receiving the in depth analysis it deserves. Having said that it seems there is a clear precedent for BBC contributors outside of the News department giving political opinions, with no disciplinary consequences.

The director of the BBC seems to not be very good at his job at all. It's clear that Lineker is a bogey man for his 'side' in the same way someone like Clarkson is for the other 'side', and the DG couldn't wait to get an 'easy win' and throw a bit of red meat to the people who got him the job. The fact that he couldn't think even one step ahead as to how this might play out, and make the necessary comparisons to past precedents is a huge worry for someone in his position.

That this farce has taken up so much of the national attention span is baffling to me. But the fact it has, and the way it has, is more evidence of a worrying decline in competence masked by mindless partisan cheering. That is how banana republics are made.

[laddo]

Obviously it's all subjective but to me Lineker is an above average sports presenter. With the number of presenting gigs he books and the amount of media companies he has and does currently work for suggests that the industry agree with my amateur assessment or hold him in higher regard.

As for the main BBC pundits, now that's where I agree and I firmly believe 'average at best' comes into play. Alan Shearer for example is stealing a living, he's robbing a bank every week with his performance as an expert pundit.

[upthemaggies]

I listened to every single one of the podcasts Lineker did with Danny Baker and thoroughly enjoyed them, but he's clearly not the brightest button in the box.

His comparing the support he's received on twitter to the feeling he had when scoring for England was very telling I think.

It's a typical trajectory for celebrities coming from less privileged backgrounds, they enjoy all of the fruits the system has to offer and the adulation that goes with it, then as they reach their use-by date at the top of their game, the hero worship fades, they are left contemplating how they came to end up in their huge houses with the expensive toys, the guilt kicks in and they're then desperately seeking approval for being a good kind caring person to fill the void and justify their accumulating wealth.

No celebrity was probably more self-aware than John Lennon who admitted as much shortly before his murder. Decorated as a member of the British Empire only to be rejected three years later by a culture unprepared for his sudden deep dive into the avant-garde with an American-Asian artist, he was busted by a bent cop which resulted in his partner suffering a miscarriage late-term and ridiculed by the media. The only place left for him to run and be taken semi-seriously was the radical left wing publications - the International Times, OZ magazine and Red Mole. In his own words he just wanted Tariq Ali to love him, because the likes of Don Short at the Daily Mirror would no longer give him the validation he so desperately craved.

As Lennon's own song written to himself states "Say you wanna save humanity but it's people that you just can't stand. I don't wanna face it."

Lineker is no left wing radical, he tweeted that Corbyn needed to be removed once he realised his cushy lifestyle may not be so secure had Corbyn got in, but this self appointed Ghandi of the progressive left is not smart enough to disguise his true motives. The left wing equivalent of that Harry Enfield character "Nice but Dim"

[laddo]

Well its certainly an interesting and thought-provoking take. But has Gary Lineker reached his used by date? If he has I certainly hadn't noticed.
If you have lots of financial wealth, I fully understand why people then seek moral wealth, as it has more worth to them.

British Broadcasting Corporation 0 v 1 Tim 'Nice but Dim'

[upthemaggies]

Well its certainly an interesting and thought-provoking take. But has Gary Lineker reached his used by date? If he has I certainly hadn't noticed.

'

Unlike Des Lynam, Brian Moore, Jim Rosenthal etc. He isn't where he is now because he worked his way up studying and gaining the qualifications necessary to land a job on a local newspaper as a journalist, expressing the talent to progress to a job as a reporter for local news, or local radio and so on. He's presenting MOTD because of what he did on the pitch and was semi-articulate and initially inoffensive enough to be fast-tracked into a role that should have been reserved for a professional.

Pop stars are no different wealth-wise, they become richer long after peaking as artists, living off the royalties of past glories whilst convincing themselves that they are still relevant - fuelled by anorak must-have-everything collector types still sending their well below sub-par mid-life crisis junk into the top ten for one week before it disappears and is forgotten for ever, until they return and give yet another interview reflecting on their heyday hoping for the brief opportunity to plug their latest abomination attempting to sound like what was contemporary 18 months agio. When that fails, then it's time for another greatest hits package.

[Bushwacka]

He's presenting MOTD because of what he did on the pitch and was semi-articulate and initially inoffensive enough to be fast-tracked into a role that should have been reserved for a professional.

Jimmy Hill presented it for most of my childhood.

[upthemaggies]

Jimmy Hill presented it for most of my childhood.

Jimmy Hill was a quite exceptional character though, a successful manager not just a player, who had cut his teeth as a director and Head of Sport at London Weekend Television as well transforming football coverage with his ground-breaking and innovative analysis having literally changed the game itself forever - for better or worse - being a key figure in abolishing the maximum wage.

Many will only remember him as a bow-tied doddering old fool arguing with Terry Venables for the sake of it, but in his day a comparison with Lineker as a broadcaster begins and ends with them being ex-pro footballers. In a different league entirely.