The BBC | Tim Davie resigns as Director General over Trump documentary edit (p 187)

He had the right to speak his mind,but when you express such an extreme political opinion.....there are consequences,as he is rightly finding out.

Saying that the governments rhetoric is similar to that of the German government in the 1930’s, when it is similar to the rhetoric of the German government in the 1930’s, isn’t expressing an “extreme political” view.
Indeed there isn’t any political bent to it at all, it’s merely making an observation that’s no more political than saying that it’s dark at night.
He’s made a statement of fact and it’s laughable that the outed politicians are attempting to dress it up as something else.

Doesn’t affect me either way though because I don’t watch the BBC.
 
So who raised the issue this time?

There was an interview with Lineker posted on here earlier in which he said that the impartiality clause applied to those working on news and current affairs, something which other BBC journalists have acknowledged, though there has always been a grey area about what ‘bringing the BBC into disrepute’ means.
Public petitions, MP's, social media campaigns, presumably.
 
So who raised the issue this time?

There was an interview with Lineker posted on here earlier in which he said that the impartiality clause applied to those working on news and current affairs, something which other BBC journalists have acknowledged, though there has always been a grey area about what ‘bringing the BBC into disrepute’ means.
What it means now if a prominent BBC employee or someone paid by The BBC says something about the government they don't like the government will be contacting their lackeys at the top of The BBC to get that person off the air or to not broadcaster an interview
 
Economically, morally this could be good news.

The enormous savings to the licence payer from Shearers wedge alone could be passed to projects to help refugees have a better life or to resettle peacefully somewhere more welcoming than our fractured, freezing Isle .

Maybe free tv licences for over 60s on minimal pension?

Robbie Fowler, Blair , Mrs Sunak , could release some of their property empires.

Carragher can be accidently sent to Rwanda for previous offences to public decency.
 
When I look at England and see that David Attenborough and Gary Lineker can be portrayed as politically subversive, it is deeply concerning.
We're a politically charged, toxic nation filled with people who are quick to portray others as evil and themselves as bastions of moral courage.

Everyone needs to calm the fuck down.
 
What a miserable life you must lead, seriously how can you get so wound up over a programme ? its laughable it really is...chill out...

Slight overreaction lol.

Eastenders is shite as well.

Hope that doesn’t send you into a spin?
 
I agree that throwing around Nazi insults and comparisons is often done too cheaply without understanding and runs the risk of trivialising the horrors of the Nazis. However as numerous people have pointed out that isn't what he did, he made a specific point about comparative language.

I don't think he was for a minute suggesting our government is as vile as the Nazis. I think he was making a point about propaganda and the power of the spoken and the written word and where it can ultimately lead to. When I think of pre WWII Germany the question from history is not why did a bunch of psychopathic fanatics concoct their evil plan but why did an entire nation of ordinary people just like you and I allow them to execute it? The salutory lesson is that the German people didn't get out of bed one morning and decide to support one of the most murderous regimes in human history. The events of Nov '38 and beyond followed well over a decade of an explicit process both pre and post coming to power an important part of which focused on language that normalised abnormal thoughts and behaviour with a view to creating a passivity and acceptance in the broader population that 'something had to be done'.

So I think it is healthy we are having this discussion. It's a shame much of our public discourse is now undertaken on technology platforms actively designed to distort that discourse. Nonetheless I think what he said is a legitimate topic for discussion. This governments penchant for a certain type of sloganeering doesn't make it nazi but it does raise questions about it's behaviour; it's fitness to govern and where it is trying to take us as a country.

There is a certain irony in how the BBC have subsequently behaved in this spat in that during the 20s both Himmler and then Goebbels coveted the ability to exert pressure on ithe mass media and entertainment spheres but they did not have the financial wherewithal. In '27 Goebbels exhorted the party faithful to focus on public speeches as the most cost effective way for the Nazis to operate within their current financial constraints, at the same time he provided guidance for a level of message discipline that showed how much he understood the power of slogans repeated ad nauseum as a conditioning tool on a broader population.

(As an aside as we're on the subject. For what it's worth my own view is that whilst we must be vigilant in this country, more obvious parallels can be drawn with the MAGA movement in the US. As a simple example, if you look at the 'drain the swap' term, its been used in US politics since the late 1800's but the way MAGA used it clearly echoed Goebbels positioning of the Nazis participation in the Reichstag to their base).
Slogans, eh?

Anyone else twigged that Stop The Boats has the same initial letters as Send Them Back?
 
I agree that throwing around Nazi insults and comparisons is often done too cheaply without understanding and runs the risk of trivialising the horrors of the Nazis. However as numerous people have pointed out that isn't what he did, he made a specific point about comparative language.

I don't think he was for a minute suggesting our government is as vile as the Nazis. I think he was making a point about propaganda and the power of the spoken and the written word and where it can ultimately lead to. When I think of pre WWII Germany the question from history is not why did a bunch of psychopathic fanatics concoct their evil plan but why did an entire nation of ordinary people just like you and I allow them to execute it? The salutory lesson is that the German people didn't get out of bed one morning and decide to support one of the most murderous regimes in human history. The events of Nov '38 and beyond followed well over a decade of an explicit process both pre and post coming to power an important part of which focused on language that normalised abnormal thoughts and behaviour with a view to creating a passivity and acceptance in the broader population that 'something had to be done'.

So I think it is healthy we are having this discussion. It's a shame much of our public discourse is now undertaken on technology platforms actively designed to distort that discourse. Nonetheless I think what he said is a legitimate topic for discussion. This governments penchant for a certain type of sloganeering doesn't make it nazi but it does raise questions about it's behaviour; it's fitness to govern and where it is trying to take us as a country.

There is a certain irony in how the BBC have subsequently behaved in this spat in that during the 20s both Himmler and then Goebbels coveted the ability to exert pressure on ithe mass media and entertainment spheres but they did not have the financial wherewithal. In '27 Goebbels exhorted the party faithful to focus on public speeches as the most cost effective way for the Nazis to operate within their current financial constraints, at the same time he provided guidance for a level of message discipline that showed how much he understood the power of slogans repeated ad nauseum as a conditioning tool on a broader population.

(As an aside as we're on the subject. For what it's worth my own view is that whilst we must be vigilant in this country, more obvious parallels can be drawn with the MAGA movement in the US. As a simple example, if you look at the 'drain the swap' term, its been used in US politics since the late 1800's but the way MAGA used it clearly echoed Goebbels positioning of the Nazis participation in the Reichstag to their base).
Fucking sensational post.

The irony seems lost on the far-right, that the consequence of Linekar's justifiable comment is tantamount to state censorship...something a particular regime of the mid-20th Century were notorious for.
 
Still makes him an employee and he still agreed to the BBC's impartiality agreement in order to be a presenter on the show. If it comes out that Linekar actually has never agreed to any 'impartiality' then yes the BBC are wrong to have suspended him, but so far that doesn't appear to be the case.
But he didn’t make the comments on any BBC social media site or on the TV. How does that break the agreement? Is he not allowed to express a viewpoint on anything outside of his job?
 
I agree that throwing around Nazi insults and comparisons is often done too cheaply without understanding and runs the risk of trivialising the horrors of the Nazis. However as numerous people have pointed out that isn't what he did, he made a specific point about comparative language.

I don't think he was for a minute suggesting our government is as vile as the Nazis. I think he was making a point about propaganda and the power of the spoken and the written word and where it can ultimately lead to. When I think of pre WWII Germany the question from history is not why did a bunch of psychopathic fanatics concoct their evil plan but why did an entire nation of ordinary people just like you and I allow them to execute it? The salutory lesson is that the German people didn't get out of bed one morning and decide to support one of the most murderous regimes in human history. The events of Nov '38 and beyond followed well over a decade of an explicit process both pre and post coming to power an important part of which focused on language that normalised abnormal thoughts and behaviour with a view to creating a passivity and acceptance in the broader population that 'something had to be done'.

So I think it is healthy we are having this discussion. It's a shame much of our public discourse is now undertaken on technology platforms actively designed to distort that discourse. Nonetheless I think what he said is a legitimate topic for discussion. This governments penchant for a certain type of sloganeering doesn't make it nazi but it does raise questions about it's behaviour; it's fitness to govern and where it is trying to take us as a country.

There is a certain irony in how the BBC have subsequently behaved in this spat in that during the 20s both Himmler and then Goebbels coveted the ability to exert pressure on ithe mass media and entertainment spheres but they did not have the financial wherewithal. In '27 Goebbels exhorted the party faithful to focus on public speeches as the most cost effective way for the Nazis to operate within their current financial constraints, at the same time he provided guidance for a level of message discipline that showed how much he understood the power of slogans repeated ad nauseum as a conditioning tool on a broader population.

(As an aside as we're on the subject. For what it's worth my own view is that whilst we must be vigilant in this country, more obvious parallels can be drawn with the MAGA movement in the US. As a simple example, if you look at the 'drain the swap' term, its been used in US politics since the late 1800's but the way MAGA used it clearly echoed Goebbels positioning of the Nazis participation in the Reichstag to their base).
Brilliant post.
 

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