The GB News row rumbles on, with its enemies seeing the perfect chance to call for its closure. A genuinely indefensible blunder from two of the channel’s regulars, Laurence Fox and Dan Wootton, has seen both suspended. But questions are now being asked about the overall culture – and even whether it should be banned entirely. Adam Boulton, former political editor of Sky News, was on Newsnight last night saying that it’s time for GB News to be taken off air, even going so far as to compare the station to Russian state media:
I have to say I think the complaints have piled up against GB News. I think there is a delicate and important broadcast ecology in this country. I think GB News is trying to bust that ecology, and frankly what Ofcom should do is shut it down, like it shut down RT [Russia Today]…
When host Victoria Derbyshire accused Boulton of defending the established media, Boulton said that ‘I value the competition that we’ve had within the rules.’ Gordon Brown, a former prime minister close to Keir Starmer, said the debacle shows that Ofcom ‘needs to have more teeth to deal with issues of standards.’ But that was mild compared to the verdict of Caroline Nokes who wanted it closed down entirely – despite the fact that four of her Tory colleagues, including Conservative deputy chairman Lee Anderson, are regulars on GB News:
It should be taken off air. It was entirely predictable that Laurence Fox was going to come out with a statement that was that offensive. I think what was less predictable would be Dan Wootton’s smirking reaction. But really I think Ofcom deserves a bit of time and space for it to do its job, and if we as parliament aren’t happy with the regulations that are set, then maybe we should be tightening them up…
I don’t go on any of their shows. Because to be frank, from my perspective, if you’re a Member of Parliament you have a day job to do, getting on with the work you have in the House of Commons and not swanning off in some cases several times a week to present a show on a television channel.
This blow-up stems to decisions taken right at the very start of GB News: whether to shoot for high-quality, against-the-grain analysis or whether to acquire and revel in a ‘bad boy’ image with laddish dialogues such as that between Wootton and Fox. Mr S is told that Paul Marshall, the former Lib Dem donor who has bankrolled the heavily lossmaking channel, weighed in behind the latter. Sources close to Marshall deny this, saying he’s a minority investor in GB News and that he doesn’t call the shots or interfere with GB News’ editorial stance. Marshall owns 45 per cent of GB News as does the Dubai-based Legatum.
Meanwhile Megyn Kelly, former Fox News presenter, has come to Fox’s aide saying he might not have used the “Queen’s English” but his fundamental analysis was sound. Calvin Robinson, another GB News presenter, has said that “unless GB News – and that included its management, presenters and producers – stands for free speech, there is no point in its existence.” Fox has made a point, saying of GB News:-
“They will cancel just as readily, if not more so, than the rest just to try and stay alive, and they have opened themselves up to an unending, brutal and sustained attack from the regime and their media lapdogs. In trying to appease the mob, they have emboldened it. Which is why you never apologise to the mob.”
So Fox regrets nothing. Wootton, Mr S suspects, will by now be regretting rather a lot. MailOnline has said that Wootton’s freelance column “has now been terminated, along with his contract.” Will GBNews also make him walk the plank? We’ll bring you more as it develops.
"I think it should be taken off air"
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) September 27, 2023
Conservative MP Caroline Nokes tells #Newsnight Ofcom needs space to its job and that maybe regulations should be 'tightened up'https://t.co/P0zxS1DNGF pic.twitter.com/RizHEY89vt
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