EnglishEdward
Deity
Being employed by the BBC for a high salary is not a basic service.
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Being employed by the BBC for a high salary is not a basic service.
The only reason I see for them to apply is to stifle criticism of the government. It is nothing to do with "impartiality" if you are not also punishing people for agreeing with the government.
I’m not sure I agree. Although criticism does mainly tend to be directed at the government of the day, being outspoken the other way is not good either.
For example, many people on the left felt that Corbyn wasn’t given a fair ride whilst leader of the opposition. Whether this is true or not, it certainly wouldn’t have been helped if the host of Newsnight was on their private twitter slating him.
The point remains, if you said the opposite of what Carol said and agreed with Suella you could keep your job at the beeb.
innonimatu
the resident Cassandra
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- Dec 4, 2006
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- 15,338
You are actually recognizing that the freedom of the press belongs only to the owners of the press.
Doesn't that mean that the "freedon of expression" right is one more right that is inoperable, not worth the paper wasted writing it?
To even attempt to partially fix that (rights are always dangerously phony) you brits need to exit denial about having political parties unfit for its supposed use, disband and recreate them... Labour especially sould have been disbanded years ago.
EnglishEdward
Deity
Being tediously pedantic I rather think that you mean mass-media rather than the press itself,
which term now has echos of metal machinery printing pamphlets, newspapers and books etc.
I don't deny that none of the major political parties here in the UK are fit, they ought to be dismantled.
To my mind, the real problem is that these originally local parties became nationalised and therefore top down,
destroying bottom up thinking, and becoming particular vulnerable to corporate and financial interest takeover.
Several million ordinary people rent homes in the UK; many are sub-standard, but on rolling leases.
If the tenant complains they may get no fault evicted so they don't complain. This threat to a "basic
service" is a de facto loss of freedom of speech, and impacts hundreds of thousands.
Yet the capitalist owned mass media have very successfully diverted the people here into caring
more about the freedom of speech of Carol Vorderman and Gary Lineker, both in the wealthy class.
which term now has echos of metal machinery printing pamphlets, newspapers and books etc.
I don't deny that none of the major political parties here in the UK are fit, they ought to be dismantled.
To my mind, the real problem is that these originally local parties became nationalised and therefore top down,
destroying bottom up thinking, and becoming particular vulnerable to corporate and financial interest takeover.
Several million ordinary people rent homes in the UK; many are sub-standard, but on rolling leases.
If the tenant complains they may get no fault evicted so they don't complain. This threat to a "basic
service" is a de facto loss of freedom of speech, and impacts hundreds of thousands.
Yet the capitalist owned mass media have very successfully diverted the people here into caring
more about the freedom of speech of Carol Vorderman and Gary Lineker, both in the wealthy class.
Freedom of speech is a useful barometer in any professed democracy.
And if the wealthy even get theirs unfairly suppressed, what chance do you or I have? Just because they're well-off, doesn't make the problem not a problem. Fixing issues with landlords, rent, the homeowning ecosystem and all of that, is a very different problem with different solutions.
It is not so much that I care about their freedom of speech as such, as others have said your employer is free to impose much more harsh restrictions on you that this if they wish, and frequently do in the private sector. It is more that I want those people on the BBC. Can you imagine Ben Elton on the beeb under this sort of rule, for example? What would eighties TV had been like without him?
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EnglishEdward
Deity
@ Gorbles
I don't regard either Carol Vorderman or Gary Lineker's freedom of speech as being unfairly suppressed.
And if it was, they could go to court. Why don't they? Maybe it is because their lawyers advise them not to.
Most people who work for an employer are expected to abide by their employer's code of conduct.
@ Samson
Regarding Ben Elton and comedy, I note that the "have we got news" team seem to be able to exert a lot of freedom of expression.
I don't regard either Carol Vorderman or Gary Lineker's freedom of speech as being unfairly suppressed.
And if it was, they could go to court. Why don't they? Maybe it is because their lawyers advise them not to.
Most people who work for an employer are expected to abide by their employer's code of conduct.
@ Samson
Regarding Ben Elton and comedy, I note that the "have we got news" team seem to be able to exert a lot of freedom of expression.
And there it is. Alrighty.
EnglishEdward
Deity
Gary Lineker played the game that he was an employee of a company contracted to work for the BBC, rather than a BBC employee.
And I doubt that the BBC had run that through their lawyers.
And I doubt that the BBC had run that through their lawyers.
EnglishEdward
Deity
The Gary Lineker and mates show was never that good.
Would have preferred if they'd just cancelled it and stopped transferring money from the poorer half to the already rich.
Would have preferred if they'd just cancelled it and stopped transferring money from the poorer half to the already rich.
I am not english, so don't get the idolization/cult around Lineker, but I do remember that he was concurrently in 3 shows in the end of the 90s/start of the 00s (when I was a student in England), so he has a large following ^^
I never liked football.
I never liked football.
EnglishEdward
Deity
Oh, he was a very good footballer, but he is not the only person who can commentate.
The interesting thing going on in the UK is the growth of and interest in women's football;
for which the TV coverage was slipping past the Gary Lineker old boys network.
The interesting thing going on in the UK is the growth of and interest in women's football;
for which the TV coverage was slipping past the Gary Lineker old boys network.
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