GB News used to be a joke - now it's dangerous

[T_i_B]

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/gb-news-used-to-be-a-joke-now-its-dangerous-2141261?ito=social_itw_theipaper&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1676050257

GB News launched in 2021, to massive media interest, with a promise to become a patriotic centre-right alternative to the BBC and Sky. That did not happen. The launch was a technical and editorial disaster and an object lesson in how hard it is to make a rolling news channel work smoothly. But then something disturbing took place. As its ratings dwindled, the channel opted for a new approach. It dedicated itself to conspiracy theories on the furthest fringes of the right.

On Tuesday, one of its leading presenters, Mark Steyn, who presented the 8pm slot, quit the channel, with a delightful parting shot in which he said he used to call its in-house compliance officer “Ofcom’s bitch”. Steyn is currently under two Ofcom investigations – one for saying the Government’s vaccination policy is causing a health risk to the British public and another for an interview he did with so-called journalist Naomi Wolf about the vaccine rollout.

On Wednesday, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the all-party parliamentary group against antisemitism issued a warning about the language on the channel and the conspiracies it was alluding to. These incidents are just the tip of the iceberg. Day after day, this kind of anti-vax content is given free rein.

What’s going on here? How is this stuff able to go out without Ofcom stepping in? Its rules demand that “factual programmes or items or portrayals of factual matters must not materially mislead the audience”. And yet outside of the two Steyn investigations, it seems extremely sluggish in its response.

[OneBlueDotS-Carolina]

1. Mark Steyn

The failed theater critic...someone gave that POS a job?

[T_i_B]

2. Yes

GB News has a reputation for barrel scraping. He resigned because they wanted him to pay the OFCOM fines caused by his show.

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[LeftishBrit]

3. Mark Steyn is vile

I know him for his 'Eurabia' rants; and his arguments that the welfare state makes us too soft to fight the Muslims, and basically that white women should have as many children as possible to outbreed the Muslims. As a descendant of Eastern Europaean Jews, I don't use the word 'fascist' lightly, but he is a true fascist,

I didn't know about his anti-vaccine propaganda, but it doesn't surprise me.

[T_i_B]

4. The anti-vax stuff is what got him into trouble with OFCOM

Although it does seem that Oxford Council is the new target of the tin foil hat brigade as they move on to Clean Air Zones, LTN'S, 15 minute cities etc.

Whilst there may be plenty of flaws in such policies and concepts, the idea that walking to the shops is a conspiracy on the part of Bill Gates and Klaus Schwab that violates Magna Carta is total bollocks.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Yes

I live in the middle of all this, and I do think a lot of it has been rushed into without due planning (and most of it comes from the County Council, who mostly don't live in Oxford). But if a protest is being backed by both Laurence Fox and Piers Corbyn, there is probably something dodgy about it!

[T_i_B]

6. It's a complex subject

And the attempts by GB "news" and others on the right to boil everything down to some sort of conspiracy are idiotic and counterproductive to their own cause.

If they looked at things from a practical standpoint instead, and listened more to residents in the affected areas they might have a case.

Link to tweet

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