After a week of public outcry and over 10,000 signatures on our petition in only a few days, calling on Gary Lineker and the BBC to part ways, the message has finally been received. His departure from the BBC was long overdue. This latest incident comes after years of us pointing out his descent. He became a symbol of the rot at the heart of our national broadcaster: a man repeatedly allowed to flout the BBC’s own rules on impartiality, abusing his position to promote his increasingly propagandist politics, vilifying those he disagrees with, and even promoting dehumanising and extreme messages. The BBC tolerated this for years despite our growing calls and in spite of its supposed values, because it no longer lives by them. Impartiality at the BBC is dead, and Mr Lineker has been Exhibit A. Gary Lineker could have been the Des Lynam of our generation. Instead, he transformed in front of the nation’s eyes into Mr Not So Nice Guy, an egotist who mistook celebrity for moral authority, a divisive figure who used his fame to inflame. At last, the final whistle has been blown on his tenure at the BBC, and now it is time to ask how and why management allowed him to play on until now, foul after foul.
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