BBC News: Martine Croxall asks if she’s ‘allowed to be this gleeful’
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Martine Croxall, 53, has been taken off air by the BBC following a potential breach of impartiality on Sunday evening. Gary Lineker, 61, who has previously also come under fire for a breach of BBC guidelines, seethed as he took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the situation.
Martine, who is a presenter on BBC News, was taken off air for the comments she made after it was announced Boris Johnson, 58, would be pulling out of the Conservative leadership race.
Today Gary retweeted another user, NargisWalker, who shared the details of what had happened to Martine with the caption: “We are all #MartineCroxall.”
“Oh for crying out loud,” Gary added above the original tweet, seemingly implying that he did not agree with the BBC’s decision.
Martine got in trouble after she said she was “gleeful” during her introduction to Sunday evening’s edition of The Papers.
She made the remark at 10.30pm, which was about 90 minutes after Boris announced he would not be standing in the leadership contest.
Martine told viewers: “Well this is all very exciting, isn’t it?”
Positively beaming, the presenter continued: “Am I allowed to be this gleeful? Well I am.”
Later on in the programme, which sees experts discuss the main news stories of the day, Martine admitted she may have breached the BBC’s guidelines.
This came after she laughed at one guest’s comment mocking the former prime minister.
“I shouldn’t probably [laugh],” she said. “I’m probably breaking some terrible due impartiality rule by giggling.”
Following the news presenter’s comments, a BBC spokesperson issued a statement yesterday addressing the situation as it stands.
They said: “BBC News is urgently reviewing last night’s edition of The Papers on the news channel for a potential breach of impartiality.
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“It is imperative that we maintain the highest editorial standards. We have processes in place to uphold our standards, and these processes have been activated.”
The PA news agency has reported that Martine will remain off air until the investigation is complete.
Gary has also faced criticism for breaking the BBC’s impartiality rules, with the broadcaster ruling that he had crossed a line when he tweeted about the Conservative Party earlier this year.
Back in February, the Match of the Day host shared a story about then-Foreign Secretary Liz Truss urging a boycott of the Champions League final in Russia.
He added: “And her party will hand back their donations from Russian donors?”
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) has upheld a complaint following the social media post and said that it “did not meet the BBC’s editorial standards on impartiality”.
The ECU argued Gary was “one of the BBC’s highest profile stars” who had an “additional responsibility” because of said profile – despite not being required to uphold the same high standards of impartiality as BBC journalists.
“We expect these individuals to avoid taking sides on party political issues or political controversies and to take care when addressing public policy matters,” the ruling said.
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