GB News

[MikeWM]

As Ofcom have said, there is nothing wrong with broadcasting even very controversial content - however, it always needs to be presented with context or countered with differing opinions (especially where mainstream opinion differs). GB News / Mark Steyn could have avoided this entirely by having someone with an opposing view argue with her, and/or by clearly (and repeatedly) stating that these are her personal opinions and that they differ from what the authorities / science community believe. Ofcom don't mind if you leave the audience to make up their minds about a controversial opinion, but they do require that the audience are informed that there are alternatives.

As Steyn and others have pointed out many times however, this principle has been applied in a very one-sided way. In this particular case, there were all manner of claims broadcast that rather dramatically *overstated* the safety and efficiency of the covid vaccines, and Ofcom never reprimanded or fined anyone for not 'balancing' those by someone more sceptical. The fact that one side reflected what the authorities and their hand-picked scientists wanted us to believe, and the other did not, combined with the guidance that was issued by Ofcom at the start of covid that basically said 'you can't question what the state says on these matters', makes Ofcom appear more a state censor than an arbiter of balance.

The crux of these issues though is that they basically just contracted these shows out to Mark Steyn, who has no knowledge of UK broadcasting regulations, no fear of the regulator and no desire to do what he's told to do - hence his throwing his toys out when he got told he would become liable for any fines he might accrue.

That is basically true, yes. Although I maintain, as I said at the time, GB News needed him more than he needed them, so I don't blame him for walking away.

His attempts to appeal these decisions will go nowhere, simply because there is no right to complete freedom of speech in the UK, and the rules that he broke cover everybody.

I don't think they will go anywhere either, sadly. Though I'd hope they did, not least because the government is dramatically increasing Ofcom's powers via the Online 'Safety' Bill.

 

[365 Networker]

Camilla Tominey is in the Paddington studio today.

 

[Mojo]

Anne Diamond revealed tonight live on Dan Wootton's show in an emotional interview that the reason she has been off is because she has breast cancer. Explains why Stephen Dixon was getting so irate at people asking where she was. She said she will be back on Saturday morning. Setting my alarm now..!

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Anne Diamond revealed tonight live on Dan Wootton's show in an emotional interview that the reason she has been off is because she has breast cancer. Explains why Stephen Dixon was getting so irate at people asking where she was. She said she will be back on Saturday morning. Setting my alarm now..!

I've just seen; truly a national treasure... And so much courage to reveal on national television

 

[Typhoon]

Another new recruit - Richard Tice.

Reform Party leader and businessman Richard Tice is joining GB News after announcing his decision to quit TalkTV.

Tice will present various prime time and weekend programmes on The People’s Channel, as well as being a regular contributor to its rapidly growing website and social media channels.

In a GBNews.com exclusive, Tice will be presenting his weekly Sunday Sermon after previously presenting the programme on TalkTV.

GB News Head of Programming Ben Briscoe said Tice is already on good footing with viewers of The People’s Channel after making regular appearances in his political capacity.

Ben commented: “Richard has an exceptional grasp of what really matters to the people of Britain, and deeply connects to audiences as a result.

“He’s a perfect addition to the GB News family.”

In a statement on social media, Tice said: “After two years working with so many wonderful people at TalkTV, I am excited to confirm that I will be presenting and contributing at GB News.”

He thanked colleagues at TalkTV “for their help and support during and extraordinary period for news and views”.

Tice commences in his new role next week.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertain...1&cvid=6929ab11909a4b64bb57e3dd8905d9cf&ei=20

I'll be interested in who he is replacing, or is he just another addition to the payroll. Gloria De Piero's last show was 23rd July but is still on the staff list. (Almost) every appointment seems to move away from any idea pretence of balance.

 

[sor]

Balance went out the window when they seemed to hire every Tory MP (some of whom sport GB News logos on their Twitter accounts). It was then beyond parody when there was that husband and wife MP duo interviewing the chancellor (recently ruled by Ofcom to be inappropriate)

In this case I think it's more about Talk TV being even more of a financial basketcase than GB News is. News Corp correctly identified that there wasn't room for two such stations and that was why the original Talk TV was cancelled before it launched. I'm sure it was in negotiations for a while, but the timing is curious with old man Murdoch stepping down...

 

[jon0844]

I wonder what they'll do with Dan Wootton. They've said that the things he's alleged to have done weren't during is time at GB News so 'case closed' but I wonder if they'll try and find a way to push him out of the door. Look out for any sudden announcement of him taking an extended holiday...

 

[Mojo]

In this case I think it's more about Talk TV being even more of a financial basketcase than GB News is. News Corp correctly identified that there wasn't room for two such stations and that was why the original Talk TV was cancelled before it launched. I'm sure it was in negotiations for a while, but the timing is curious with old man Murdoch stepping down...

I think the budget for TalkTv is incredibly low so whilst there may not be much of a market for it it probably doesn’t cost very much on top of the radio station. It’s effectively just a broadcast from their radio studio with a few graphics even down to the microphones that frequently appear in shot.

 

[SteveM70]

Balance went out the window when they seemed to hire every Tory MP (some of whom sport GB News logos on their Twitter accounts)

And who are paid by GB News for doing so

 

[Mag_seven]

Balance went out the window

I don't think it was ever in the window.

 

[jon0844]

And who are paid by GB News for doing so

Yes Lee Anderson is paid £100k for doing 8 hours a week, which is nice work if you can get it.

In this case I think it's more about Talk TV being even more of a financial basketcase than GB News is. News Corp correctly identified that there wasn't room for two such stations and that was why the original Talk TV was cancelled before it launched. I'm sure it was in negotiations for a while, but the timing is curious with old man Murdoch stepping down...

Seems there is a lot of internal wrangling going on within the Murdoch family, but it has been rumoured for a while that Rupert was about to pull the plug on Talk TV and return it to just the radio service as before, and other rumours that they may have made a bid to buy GB News.

So maybe that has prompted some people to jump ship and secure new jobs.

 

[SteveM70]

Yes Lee Anderson is paid £100k for doing 8 hours a week, which is nice work if you can get it

His payment for the Twitter thing is in addition to that

 

[nw1]

Yes Lee Anderson is paid £100k for doing 8 hours a week, which is nice work if you can get it.

Lee Anderson who doubtless, in Truss-like fashion, thinks the "elite" is something that excludes himself.

 

[jfollows]

Private Eye's reporting on how much they all get paid (Private Eye No. 1607 22 September - 5 October 2023):

CASH FOR QUESTIONS

THE viewing figures may be mediocre at best, but in one important respect GB News is thrashing all comers - the amount it’s splurging on elected MPs.

Since last August, GB News has dished out a staggering £444,313 to members of the Commons to host its shows. This compares with just £55,000 spent by rival TalkTV over a similar period - and a vast amount more than the BBC, which doesn’t pay sitting MPs a fee for appearances on Question Time.

Unsurprisingly, most of Team GB are Conservatives. The three Labour MPs who received money (Rosie Duffield, Barry Gardiner and Carolyn Harris) account for a mere £1,600 between them, or 0.3 percent of the total. The other 99.7 percent went to the other side of the aisle, including an enormous £149,121 dished out to Jacob Rees-Mogg over the past five months.

Others, including the husband-and-wife team of Esther McVey and Philip Davies (reprimanded by Ofcom this Monday for failing to ensure “due impariality” (sic) when interviewing their colleague chancellor Jeremy Hunt) have received £171,000 between them - and Lee Anderson, apparently not content with the £100,000 a year he’s getting, has farmed out a corner of his Twitter/X account to the channel.

Anderson’s entry in the latest register of members’ interests declares: “From 8 August 2023, my Twitter profile is registered as an affiliated account by GB News. GB News pays £50 per month for a square affiliate badge on my Twitter page.” He doesn’t include a link to his Conservative party website - maybe if the party HQ stumped up £600 a year its own deputy chairman might be willing to acknowledge it!

 

[Strathclyder]

I don't think it was ever in the window.

It never existed in the first place. Taglines like 'Fair and Balanced' are a blatant fallacy, a laughable attempt to give outfits like GB News and Fox 'News' on the other side of the Atlantic the veneer of a legitimate news network/organization to mask what they really are at their core: the propaganda arm of a political party whose main aim is to sew division, spread blatant falsehoods, spin false narratives and constantly generate fake outrage to distract and deflect from the real pressing issues, to say nothing of the truly insidous things the party in question is getting up to. And if they all can fatten their coffers in the process, all is well and to hell with everything and everyone else.

 

[jon0844]

Lee Anderson who doubtless, in Truss-like fashion, thinks the "elite" is something that excludes himself.

He actually said (as ever, Twitter never forgets) that people in politics should not have second jobs. But, I guess he didn't mean himself.

 

[MotCO]

the propaganda arm of a political party whose main aim is to sew division, spread blatant falsehoods, spin false narratives and constantly generate fake outrage to distract and deflect from the real pressing issues, to say nothing of the truly insidous things the party in question is getting up to.

Source?

Is it any different from, say the BBC, which does not challenge any views expressed by contributors if they match their own views, whilst decrying any opposing views ? For example, its climate correspondent, Justin Rowlatt, was highly critical of Sunak's slipping of the Net Zero deadline, even though it brings us in line with Europe, and he did not mention the adverse impact on the cost of living, nor the fact that the UK has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by the most of any G7 country, whilst France is up 22% and China 300%. And the UK share of emissions is less than 1%. ( https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-net-zero-20-september-2023 )

Hardly balanced reporting from an organisation whose aims are to 'inform, educate and entertain'.

 

[Strathclyder]

Source?

Is it any different from, say the BBC, which does not challenge any views expressed by contributors if they match their own views, whilst decrying any opposing views ? For example, its climate correspondent, Justin Rowlatt, was highly critical of Sunak's slipping of the Net Zero deadline, even though it brings us in line with Europe, and he did not mention the adverse impact on the cost of living, nor the fact that the UK has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by the most of any G7 country, whilst France is up 22% and China 300%. And the UK share of emissions is less than 1%. ( https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-net-zero-20-september-2023 )

Hardly balanced reporting from an organisation whose aims are to 'inform, educate and entertain'.

I will concede that the BBC is hardly innocent of this and hasn't been for some time, but with GB News, it is blatantly favouring one major party over the other; that Private Eye report a few posts above mine is as good a source as I can refer to as evidence indicating this is the case. GB News may not be at 'Fox News' levels in terms of spewing pure unfiltered propaganda - Murdoch's stepping down being in the headlines may be where that phrasing/comparison on my part came from - but the parallels are there.

 

[MotCO]

It never existed in the first place. Taglines like 'Fair and Balanced' are a blatant fallacy, a laughable attempt to give outfits like GB News and Fox 'News' on the other side of the Atlantic the veneer of a legitimate news network/organization to mask what they really are at their core: the propaganda arm of a political party whose main aim is to sew division, spread blatant falsehoods, spin false narratives and constantly generate fake outrage to distract and deflect from the real pressing issues, to say nothing of the truly insidous things the party in question is getting up to. And if they all can fatten their coffers in the process, all is well and to hell with everything and everyone else.

Have you ever watched the Jacob Rees Mogg show? Jacob is very knowledgable and measured in his interviews, and gives his guests a very fair interview. The other day he was interviewing the former Labour MP, Stephen Pound, and they were both arguing their corner in a very engaging way - none of the 'who can shout loudest' type of interview. In my view it was very belanced. You may not agree with whatever either said, but in no way could you say it was propaganda or spreading falsehoods - facts were trading with facts.

 

[Strathclyder]

Have you ever watched the Jacob Rees Mogg show? Jacob is very knowledgable and measured in his interviews, and gives his guests a very fair interview. The other day he was interviewing the former Labour MP, Stephen Pound, and they were both arguing their corner in a very engaging way - none of the 'who can shout loudest' type of interview. In my view it was very belanced. You may not agree with whatever either said, but in no way could you say it was propaganda or spreading falsehoods - facts were trading with facts.

I will admit I haven't watched any GB News content, let alone JRM's show (I don't watch TV all that much if at all nowadays, let alone any of the news channels). If what you say is consistently the case, I will begrudgingly admit that is indeed refreshing, even if I completely disagree with his politics personally.

Either way, I'll willngly take an L on this one, I didn't think before I posted the first comment. Consider me duly humbled and I'll try and refrain from such rash, abrasive posts in the future.

 

[Gloster]

Even if the MP earning a large sum of money as a regular host on a TV programme does their best to present their programme in an impartial manner, they are still in hock to the channel‘s owners. If the channel has an agenda and the host fails to reflect this, beyond however little lip-service to impartiality the channel thinks they can get away with, they are likely to find their contract terminated and lose a nice little earner. Although a few could be prepared to stick their toes in and walk away from the money (although those likely to do this probably wouldn’t get the gig in the first place), all too many will say what is wanted and pocket the cash. This surrendering to the whims of their TV employer will then spread across to what should be their main job, being an MP, and they will cravenly help to promote the TV company, either actively or passively, in the Commons. The same applies to those receiving massive retainers from newspapers.

I am also unimpressed by the rent-a-quote MPs who are always ready to turn up on a news programme to discuss anything that is in the news, whether they know anything about the subject or not. There is nothing wrong in going on general TV discussions or to promote/criticise a subject in your portfolio or known interests, just don’t go on TV to spout any rubbish about something you know nothing about just to earn an appearance fee.

 

[brad465]

Oh dear:

https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1706803665946722447

Comments made tonight on GB News by Laurence Fox were totally unacceptable. What he said does not reflect our values and we apologise unreservedly for the comments and the offence they have caused. We have launched an investigation and will be apologising to the individual involved.

 

[matt_world2004]

Oh dear:

https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1706803665946722447

Must have been bad if GB news has apologised

 

[jfollows]

Guardian reports (https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...omments-ava-evans-investigation-inappropriate):

GB News

Laurence Fox: GB News launches investigation after ‘inappropriate’ comments about Ava Evans​

Right-leaning channel apologises after Fox made a series of derogatory comments about the journalist on Dan Wootton’s show

Helen Sullivan
@helenrsullivan
Wed 27 Sep 2023 04.27 BST


GB News has issued an apology and launched an investigation after it aired “totally inappropriate” comments by actor and Reclaim Party founder Laurence Fox about journalist Ava Evans.
Fox made a series of derogatory comments about Evans, a political correspondent for online news site Joe, during an interview with presenter Dan Wootton on Tuesday night.

Evans posted the clip of the segment to X, formerly known as Twitter, with the comment, “Laurence Fox just did a whole speech on GB News on why men apparently won’t shag me,” adding in a reply, “I feel physically sick.”
Shortly after GB News issued a statement saying Fox’s stance “does not reflect our values”.
“Comments made tonight on GB News by Laurence Fox were totally unacceptable,” the station said in a response posted to X. “What he said does not reflect our values and we apologise unreservedly for the comments and the offence they have caused. We have launched an investigation and will be apologising to the individual involved.”

Wootton later apologised as well, saying, Dear @AvaSantina I think you’re brilliant … I apologise for what was said during the course of my show and should have done this immediately on air. This is not what our channel is about.”
In the segment Fox had called Evans a “little woman” and went on to say: “Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman ever, ever, who wasn’t an incel.”
“We need powerful, strong amazing women who make great points for themselves. We don’t need these sort of feminist 4.0. They’re pathetic and embarrassing. Who’d want to shag that?”
As both Fox and Wootton laughed, Fox added, “Sorry, it’s true though.”
The segment was in response to comments made by Evans during an appearance on BBC Politics Live on Monday about men’s mental health. After her appearance she said, “I was a little rash on my anti-minister for men comments which I do regret and am actually very interested in a brief for a minister on young men’s mental health.”
Wootton raised her response with Fox, saying: “I’m just going to provide a touch of balance from her because she did actually respond to this earlier today, saying that she regretted her comments, but she didn’t apologise,” said Wootton. “Uh, yes. So there you go. And she’s a very beautiful woman Laurence, very beautiful.”
The footage of Fox sparked outrage.
Writing on X, Conservative peer Daniel Finkelstein said, “Oh my God this is truly appalling. Even for the two individuals involved this was a new low.”
The interview was the latest in a series of scandals at GB News, coming just days after the channel said it will not investigate claims of inappropriate behaviour made against Wootton because none of the accusations relate to his work for the channel.
Earlier in September, Ofcom ruled that GB News breached impartiality ruleswhen two Conservative MPs interviewed the chancellor before the spring budget and “failed to represent a wide range of significant views”. It was the channel’s third breach since it launched in June 2021.
Fox and Ofcom have been approached for comment.

I've never watched the channel and I'm not about to start, but I do wonder if its only route to an audience is through its notoriety and the fact that it becomes the subject of news reporting itself, which increases its impact. If it weren't so bad it might just gurgle away down the media plughole.

 

[sor]

I think it's the first time they've officially apologised for anything. Of course it's yet another Ofcom investigation to throw onto the pile. There was a rumour that they'd be starting a second online channel, or at least confining their more "controversial" presenters to Youtube clips where Ofcom can't get at them. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come.

The person they're "talking" about is understandably rather shocked. https://twitter.com/AvaSantina/status/1706777983241822705

 

[brad465]

I'm guessing the fact they apologised was because if they didn't they'd be looking at being on the wrong end of a very expensive legal case.

 

[Purple Train]

Mr Fox (I shall refrain from using his nickname) has now been suspended: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66932538

GB News has suspended host Laurence Fox after he denigrated a journalist and asked what "self-respecting man" would "climb into bed" with her.

The actor's comments were made in a live discussion after PoliticsJOE reporter Ava Evans said on the BBC that calls for a minister for men "feed into the culture war".

Evans said Fox's remarks made her feel "physically sick".

GB News said it would formally apologise to Ms Evans.

The broadcaster distanced itself from Fox's comments shortly after they were aired, with a statement describing the remarks as "totally unacceptable".

In a later statement issued on Wednesday morning, a GB News spokesperson said: "GB News has formally suspended Laurence Fox while we continue our investigation into comments he made on the channel last night.

"Mr Fox's suspension is effective immediately and he has been taken off air. We will be apologising formally to Ms Evans today."

Fox - who unsuccessfully ran to be London mayor in 2021 - said "I stand by every word of what I said" in a social media post on Wednesday morning.

Fox really is a sad and pathetic little man, isn't he? He's about as strong as a paper aeroplane - like quite a lot of people who have such an obsession with dominance.

 

[brad465]

Mr Fox (I shall refrain from using his nickname) has now been suspended: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66932538



Fox really is a sad and pathetic little man, isn't he? He's about as strong as a paper aeroplane - like quite a lot of people who have such an obsession with dominance.

I suspect GB News are now being labelled as "woke lefties".

 

[SteveM70]

Looks like Fox is trying to take Wootton with him

 

[birchesgreen]

Not sure it will work, considering Wootton is still there despite everything he must have some weapons grade black mail material on someone.