Because the second item on the agenda was the news that, from next May, a 63-year-old presenter would no longer be at the helm of a popular weekly television show.
A full six minutes of reporting and analysis were devoted to the fact that Gary Lineker was finishing his 25-year stint on Match of the Day. He’s not even leaving the BBC: he will front live football coverage until the final of the World Cup in 2026. But, still, a bloke’s employment position was reckoned the second most important international news story of the day.
Which, if nothing else, provides conclusive proof that Lineker has become one of those rare figures in broadcasting: he is way bigger than the show he presents.
Indeed, after he comprehensively outflanked the BBC’s director general last March, when his disciplinary suspension for antigovernment social media posts was speedily reversed following the entire football reporting team withdrawing their labour in solidarity, there is an argument that he is bigger than the corporation itself.
Everything about him – from the scale of his salary (in its most recent annual report, the BBC said Lineker earns between £1,350,000 and £1,354,999) through the success of his own broadcasting company, to his political opinions – has become a staple of the news cycle. For some fulminating figures on the right, he has been magnified into the very epitome of the overpaid woke media establishment.
Denne historien er fra November 13, 2024-utgaven av The Independent.
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Denne historien er fra November 13, 2024-utgaven av The Independent.
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Why home advantage has lost its sting in Test series.
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Red Sea boat survivors were trapped in cabins, says diver
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Myanmar junta chief faces crimes against humanity charge for Rohingya deaths
Arrest warrant requested by International Criminal Court
Lebanon ceasefire is part of plan to keep Trump on side
Benjamin Netanyahu knows the incoming president won't be happy if the Gaza war drags on, writes Chris Stevenson, so he is turning his attention to Iran to buy himself some time
