A CONSERVATIVE MP has raged at the BBC claiming its coverage of the World Cup in Qatar has been too “woke”.
Julian Knight, the chair of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, took issue with the BBC including topics such as climate change and the environment in its football broadcasts.
Knight backed the BBC for not showing the opening ceremony of the World Cup in Qatar however, claiming the “only decent one” was the one before the UK hosted the Olympics in 2012.
Speaking to GB News, the Tory MP said of the BBC’s football coverage: “It's boring, that’s the problem with it. Viewers, they're being lectured to, aren't they?
“I mean, one that got my goat and I think got some of my constituents’ goats was the other day when they broke up half-time coverage to talk about the environment and climate change etc. Obviously, a very serious issue but I watch the news for that. I don't watch the football.
“And it was a very strange three-minute section that was presented with all these sorts of facts, supposed facts… It was a very strange sort of one-sided, entirely sort of out of kilter. And really, frankly, I think people just want the BBC to get on with showing the football rather than, frankly, giving them a lecture.”
Knight went on to accuse the BBC of being hypocritical on the issue of climate change, saying: “If they've got such a worry about the environment, then how much emissions were used by BBC presenters and reporters getting out to Qatar? I presume they didn't walk.
“So what are they doing about it? How are they actually doing their bit, so to speak, rather, frankly, than wagging their finger at the rest of us?”
Knight further hit out at Gary Lineker, the footballer-turned-host who is the BBC’s highest paid star.
The Tory MP raged: “I think basically Gary Lineker writes his own rules. When the director general of the BBC said that he needed to pull his horns and he just made fun of him…
“How much carbon offsetting is sort of done by the BBC for all the hot air emitting from Gary Lineker on political issues? He loves to venture off on all sorts of areas often [from a] very … ill informed, woke viewpoint, when actually, the truth of matter is that he's paid to present football matches … so maybe he and some of his colleagues should just stick to it.”
Referring to the BBC not showing the World Cup opening ceremony, Knight also said: “I have a slightly jaundiced viewpoint. We don't need ceremonies, the only decent one was the one that we did before the Olympics in 2012."
A BBC spokesperson said: “While we have a long history of bringing major international football tournaments to audiences, including of course all the action on the pitch, we also have a proven record of addressing topical issues as part of our coverage, and this World Cup is no different.”
