BBC staff are reportedly “disgusted” that Gary Lineker has not been sacked for his recent social media actions. The outgoing Match of the Day host re-posted a cartoon image of a rat accompanied by a video that showed Canadian-Palestinian lawyer Diana Buddu attacking Israel’s war in Gaza.
Campaign Against Antisemitism led backlash against the former England footballer, who has removed the post from his story, and his apparent endorsement of the emoji, as rats were regularly used as tropes by Nazi Germany to depict Jewish people. The Telegraph claim that a group of BBC figures say the corporation’s refusal to sack Lineker is “deeply upsetting to its Jewish staff”.
One anonymous Jewish member of staff said: “It is quite simply disgusting that the BBC has not kicked Lineker out. His repeated offensiveness to Jewish people has clearly brought the BBC into disrepute. The interpretation of Zionism he has shared is anti-Semitic and the fact that the BBC thinks it’s acceptable is deeply upsetting to its Jewish staff, myself included.”
Tim Davie, the director general of the BBC, has responded to growing sack calls by admitting that posts such as Lineker’s “costs us” and Beeb employees need to follow guidelines set out for social media use.
“The BBC’s reputation is held by everyone and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us,” he said. “And I think we absolutely need people to be the exemplars of BBC values and follow our social media policies, simple as that.”
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