BBC News led bulletins with Gary Lineker’s tweets, annoying some journalists who said the row was less important than the legality of the asylum policy itself adamsherwin10 reports:
Staff and former news executives questioned the editorial decision to give the“Instead of questioning whether the migration bill breaches human rights law, we were giving prominence to an internal row whipped up right-wing Conservatives,” said one journalist. “It lets the Government off the hook byRichard Sambrook, former director of BBC News, said: “It’s daft that a sports presenter’s tweet has led BBC News all day rather than the real issues.
Editors ensured the Lineker story was accorded the same prominence as the row over BBC Chairman Richard Sharp’s involvement in facilitating a loan to Boris Johnson. That affair had also led BBC News bulletins, despite causing embarrassment for senior executives. But there was a huge wave of support for Lineker from influential left-leaning figures, including Alastair Campbell and LBC presenter James O’Brien, defending the presenter’s right to freedom of speech and endorsing his attack on Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
One said: “BBC News had covered the asylum policy extensively for several days around the launch of the policy, so it’s not the case that one story comes at the expense of the other.”
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