Gary Lineker Tangles With UK Papers Over Twitter

He Swears When He Wants

Match of the Day pundit Gary Lineker was reportedly in trouble with his BBC bosses this morning after a series of explicit Twitter posts. The tweets, which the former Leicester striker made during his hometown club’s fantastic demolition of Premier League giants Manchester United, each received thousands of retweets and favourites. As the match progressed and emotions ran higher, the tweets became more and more sweary - even featuring a couple of F-bombs.

It wouldn't seem completely unlikely, then, that reports from the Telegraph and Independent regarding him being in trouble with his employers were true. Journalist Ben Rumsby claimed the ‘unapologetic’ Lineker would face a ‘potential backlash’ due to the comments, and quoted an apparent BBC spokesperson who confirmed that Lineker would indeed be reprimanded. It seemed like a classic case of a celebrity forgetting the responsibilities their status brings, and yet another example of a famous face getting themselves in trouble with the help of a few tweets.

However, all was not as it seemed. Although it was the apparent cause of his trouble, Twitter quickly became the tool Lineker used to fight his case. First, he accused the papers of overreacting to the tweets, which despite featuring coarse language were otherwise inoffensive.

Later, he proceeded to deny the Telegraph’s story in its entirety.

Following Lineker's tweets, the journalist responsible for the original article apologised to Lineker directly, reasoning that he'd received inside info that Lineker was in trouble with the BBC. Lineker appeared to accept the apology.

However, he later made a few more tweets revealing his frustration with the situation. This is probably because the Telegraph failed to take down the article which caused the issue - and even linked it again via a tweet.

Despite being understandably annoyed with the Telegraph, it looks unlikely that Lineker will change his ways too much. Before the Telegraph foolishly retweeted the article and set everything off again, Lineker posted the following - presumably to underline just how little credence he gave to the whole ordeal.

You may or may not agree with Lineker's indifference towards foul language on social media, but Twitter allowed him his own platform from which to argue his case. If it didn't exist, Lineker may have struggled to set the record straight, which highlights even further its importance to celebrities in today's increasingly immediate world.

Apparently, Lineker now appreciates this more than most.

Emile Cole

Emile is a postgrad from the University of Saint Mark and Saint John. He’s hoping to break into journalism or publishing, and won’t stop blogging until he’s managed it! Follow him @EmileAtSMF.

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