On Thursday, the BBC tweeted:
Due to unforeseen circumstances, unfortunately Ncuti Gatwa is no longer able to participate as Spokesperson during the Grand Final this weekend.
Instead, Sophie Ellis-Bextor will be calling out the UK’s points.
According to Scottish newspaper The national,
The BBC’s announcement came during the second semi-final, reportedly just minutes after Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael qualified for the final.
I blocked some pages due to how they chose to phrase their headlines about this. Not only do several call him “the former Doctor Who star” (I can only assume this is AI generated), one went verbatim, in its entirety: “Doctor Who’s Ncuti Gatwa withdraws from BBC role - and here’s who’s replacing him”. Fuck you.
one went verbatim, in its entirety: “Doctor Who’s Ncuti Gatwa withdraws from BBC role - and here’s who’s replacing him”
The baitiest clickbait of all.
That last one is actually hilariously opportunistic. It’s entirely true that he withdrew from a BBC role, but as of now he is still the Doctor… Certain tabloids will write whatever makes people click through, I suppose.
I fucking hate this bullshit. It’s tailor-made to be misunderstood and make you click but if you do “misunderstand” because you don’t follow certain things 24/7 to be able to put their cryptic word diarrhoea into context, well, that’s on you then, they did not lie, everything they said is TECHNICALLY true.
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I blame the people publishing the articles but I also understand they’re playing in a rigged game. The platforms (facebook, reddit etc) that they depend on to get views REQUIRE headlines to be insane clickbait.
If I were the boss of Lemmy I would mandate that all communities require de-clickbaited headlines but what can you do.
Yeah, it’s like how I try not to begrudge YouTubers who make those thumbnails, no matter how much they enrage me.
They’re clearly playing off the rumour that’s been going around since February that Gatwa might be leaving, and baiting people into reading a very minor newiscle, but I agree. It’s borderline disinformation.
The BBC’s announcement came during the second semi-final, reportedly just minutes after Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael qualified for the final.
Are they trying to draw a connection here, and if so, does it hold any weight?
Somebody pulled up two tweets, one pronouncing the finalists, and the BBC’s announcement that Gatwa wouldn’t be presenting — there was a 2 minute time difference. It seems too short a time to make any decisions, but he may have had stipulations for appearing?
I don’t want to make any more assumptions than the National quote above, but I have thoughts about Who depicting Eurovision-by-proxy as a fun, apolitical event, where a competing country just happens to commit ongoing atrocities…
Now, if RTD and the BBC had the guts to pull a “Happiness patrol” on that particular escapism, well played — but I don’t think it’s in the cards.
I was wondering that as well, if he pulled out due to moral issues with Israel then respect.
But if they are just using deceptive language to stir up bullshit then, well I guess thats par for the course these days.
If and until we have any official statement about his reasons to bow out, everything is conjecture. Maybe I shouldn’t have added the National quote in retrospect, but I do think it adds perspective to the larger event.
The burden is not on you, you were were only quoting the article.
I think it’s worth mentioning, assuming the National is a respectable publication (I really don’t know my UK media).
It’s very anti-BBC.
I’ll tell you this, though — Amy Pond and Twelve have both taught me not to include Scotland under the United Kingdom 😉
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