The recent row between the BBC and footballer-turned-TV-presenter Gary Lineker has exposed the real role of the national broadcaster as a voice of the British establishment. At the same time, it has also exposed the limits of the Tories’ ‘culture war’ strategy, which is increasingly backfiring on the government as the class struggle heats up.
Last week, Lineker was forced to step down from presenting Match of the Day (MotD), the BBC’s flagship football show, after putting out a tweet in which he compared the Tory government’s rhetoric around asylum-seekers to that used by the Nazis in 1930s Germany.
Under pressure from Tory ministers and right-wing newspapers, the BBC accused the MotD host of breaking its impartiality guidelines. But he refused to apologise for his views.
The situation then rapidly escalated, with the BBC going into meltdown, as a massive backlash broke out over the channel’s botched move.
Lineker’s stand was met with widespread solidarity. His coworkers effectively went on strike over the weekend, forcing the BBC’s sports coverage to be cancelled or scaled back. Alan Shearer, Ian Wright, and other MotD pundits refused to turn up for Saturday evening’s show, which consequently was reduced to just 20 minutes of highlights, without any in-studio analysis. And players boycotted interviews with BBC reporters.
Lineker has subsequently put out a statement saying that an agreement has been reached, and that he will be back in the presenter’s chair for this coming weekend’s MotD. Meanwhile, Beeb bosses have promised an ‘independent’ review of their guidance to high-profile employees regarding social media use.
Nevertheless, the BBC and the Tories have both been left with egg on their faces by this whole messy affair. The establishment, it seems, has scored a spectacular own goal.
Saw this. “Love crisps, hate racism, solidarity with Lineker” pic.twitter.com/FVlsWYtNF9
— martin routledge (@mroutled) March 11, 2023
Hostile environment
The origins of this standoff lie with a further ratcheting-up by the Tories of their ‘hostile environment’ against migrants and refugees.
The government is currently trying to push through its new Illegal Migration Bill. This reactionary legislation seeks to ‘stop the boats’ crossing the English Channel, by threatening asylum-seekers who arrive on Britain’s shores via this route with deportation.
From the outset, charities and lawyers have warned that these latest draconian proposals would be unworkable, and could potentially be in breach of international human rights laws.
Notably, in the wake of #Linekergate, even Tory MPs have begun to speak out against the government’s policies. This includes renowned migrant-basher and ex-home secretary Priti Patel, along with other former cabinet members.
“This is a classic example of something the Lords will amend if we don’t,” stated one ex-minister. “It’s hard to see how [the government] lets it get to that stage. It would be foolish to engage in a prolonged battle on this.”
In other words, the Tories’ cynical attempts to manufacture another divisive distraction have once again blown-up in their faces – exacerbating tensions and splits with the party, and turning public opinion against the government and its media mouthpieces.
Tsunami of strikes
Lineker is clearly not the main victim in this issue; the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing imperialist war, poverty, and climate catastrophe are – as the former England footballer himself has emphasised.
But the hamfisted attempt by the BBC and the government to suppress Lineker’s freedom of speech have shone a light on the public broadcaster, highlighting the hypocrisy of the establishment.
The tweet in question was a fairly mild comment about how the government is treating migrants as a political football, to be kicked around at the Tories’ pleasure, in order to appease their rabid ranks.
Yet government ministers and the gutter press jumped on Lineker’s remarks, in the hope of further whipping-up a culture war and cutting across the rising tide of class struggle – in particular, this week’s tsunami of strikes, with junior doctors, teachers, lecturers, and civil servants all taking action together.
Initially the BBC did not take any action against the MotD presenter. But under pressure from Downing Street, they changed their tune and forced him to stand down.
Double standards
This fiasco once again exposes the role and class character of the BBC. Silencing Lineker had nothing to do with protecting ‘impartiality’, and everything to do with the fact that he spoke out against the Tories.
There are countless recent examples of BBC personnel taking vocal political stances in public, but without any penalty, as long as the views expressed are in line with the establishment’s interests.
Prominent capitalist and BBC employee Alan Sugar, for example, has repeatedly tweeted his disdain for left leaders such as Jeremy Corbyn and Mick Lynch, whilst openly supporting Boris Johnson and the Tories. But instead of reprimanding Lord Sugar, the rest of us are punished, with the arrogant businessman plaguing our screens on series after series of the Apprentice.
Even notorious Blairite spin-doctor Alastair Campbell has waded into the debate, highlighting these disgusting double standards.
It’s a strange day in British politics when @campbellclaret condemns an attack against Jeremy Corbyn.
Alan Sugar’s post was outrageous and the BBC did absolutely nothing yet they’ll crack down against @GaryLineker for condemning the cruel and evil ‘stop the boats’ policy. pic.twitter.com/drMFPIoiKp
— George Aylett (@GeorgeAylett) March 10, 2023
BBC bias
The right-wing bias at the BBC goes much deeper, however. The broadcaster is well-known for being stuffed full of Tories at the top.
Prominent figures responsible for the BBC’s political coverage, like Laura Kuenssberg and Andrew Neil, for example, have close personal ties to the Tories. This can clearly be seen in their reporting.
Even former Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis recently accused the BBC of being under the influence of the Tories, saying that an “active agent of the Conservative Party…now sits [on the institution’s board], acting as the arbiter of BBC impartiality” – a reference to Robbie Gibb, Theresa May’s old director of communications.
Most notably, many commentators have drawn attention to Richard Sharp and Tim Davie, the BBC’s current chair and director general, respectively. Both have strong links to the Tories. And both have faced calls to resign as a result of the Lineker furore.
Sharp, a former banker, is well-known as being a Tory donor. And he is currently under scrutiny over allegations that he obtained his job at the BBC on Boris Johnson’s recommendation, after helping the ex-PM obtain a £800,000 loan.
It will not surprise anyone to learn that Davie, meanwhile, was once the deputy chairman of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative Party, and has stood as a Tory candidate in local elections.
And yet, despite having all these friends in high places, the Tories still have the audacity to claim that Auntie Beeb is overrun by lefty ‘woke warriors’.
Liberal hypocrisy
Liberals and Labour right-wingers are amongst those who have joined the chorus of critics calling out the BBC over the Lineker incident.
‘Sir’ Keir Starmer, for example, accused the broadcaster of “caving in” to Tory pressure. Lib Dem leader Ed Davey, meanwhile, asserted that the country “needs leadership at the BBC that upholds our proud British values and can withstand…Conservative bullying tactics”. Similarly, journalists at many liberal outlets have also been outspoken over this issue.
Yet such comments expose their own stinking hypocrisy over the question of media bias and ‘impartiality’.
None of these people had any problem with the BBC being consistently used as a tool by the ruling class when it came to attacks on Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters – including the scandalous Panorama documentary about supposed antisemitism within the Labour Party; or the infamous photoshopping job to paint Corbyn as a ‘Moscow stooge’.
Indeed, liberal papers like the Guardian were amongst the most vicious opponents of Corbyn’s leadership, eagerly amplifying every slander that was slung his way.
Notably, in 2017, Lineker himself tweeted “bin Corbyn”. Yet he faced no punishment from BBC chiefs at the time for expressing such political bias.
And none of these people have defended Mick Lynch or his union’s members when it comes to the bosses’ smear campaign against striking rail workers, which the BBC has more than happily echoed.
These liberal commentators and politicians might be opportunistically denouncing the BBC and the Tories when it comes to the Lineker affair and the government’s racist agenda. At the end of the day, however, they defend the same class interests and rotten capitalist system as the more overtly reactionary wing of the ruling class – just with a nicer, smilier face.
This is why workers, youth, and the oppressed cannot trust any of these ladies and gentlemen when it comes to fighting back against the ruling class and their poisonous policies.
Instead, we need to fight their culture war with class war, on the basis of mass mobilisation and united class struggle.
For a workers’ media!
The fact is that the BBC, just like the rest of the mainstream media, has always represented the interests of the establishment, against those of the working class. It is not simply a propaganda machine for this Tory government, but for the British ruling class, in its war on workers.
From its inception, the BBC was designed to be a mouthpiece for the British establishment. It will never reflect and represent the interests of the vast majority – the working class.
Institutionally, structurally, and culturally: the Beeb is beyond reform. For a real transformation of the BBC, free from censorship and corporate interests, only clear socialist measures will suffice.
At a minimum, this must include a reversal of all privatisation and outsourcing; full funding, paid for by the super-rich, not through regressive taxes; the abolition of the BBC Board, and the election of all managerial and editorial roles, under the democratic control of the working class, including unionised BBC staff; and use of the broadcaster’s resources – including studios, editorial suites, offices, and more – allocated on the basis of the support for their views within society, not the amount in their bank balance.
The problem runs far deeper than this, however. It is not simply that the Tories exert a political influence over Auntie’s output, but that the capitalist class own and influence all the major news channels and outlets.
Above all, therefore, we need a revolution across the whole media industry. This means expropriating the billionaire owners of the press and private TV monopolies, and running these under public ownership and democratic workers’ control.
Under capitalism, the working class and the oppressed have no voice in the mainstream media, whether this be on the BBC, or in any of the right-wing rags. Instead, we must fight for a media of our own – one run by workers, for workers – as part of the fight for revolution.
