Sunday saw the launch of new television channel GB News. Fronted by journalist Andrew Neil, it offers a mixture of news, opinion and debate and is aimed at those wanting a different slant on current affairs.
Different how?
Different from the BBC, for a start. Neil spent a couple of decades there as presenter of a host of political shows but has often railed against the sort of liberal world-view the corporation is popularly thought to represent. The new channel, which airs on Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and other platforms, promises a different political offering, one aimed at “those who have felt side-lined or even silenced in our great national debates”.
More right wing then?
It’s a safe bet, at least based on the line-up. Historian Neil Oliver, who in a recent interview with The Herald described lockdown as “the biggest single mistake in world history”, hosts a weekend show called Neil Oliver Live, and he’s joined on the roster by less well-known names such as Mercy Muroki, formerly with right-leaning think tank the Centre for Policy Studies. Also chipping in with their tuppence worth are Michelle Dewberry, a former winner of The Apprentice and a vocal supporter of Brexit, Alex Phillips, who worked for UKIP before becoming an MEP for the Brexit Party which, as the name suggests, is a vocal supporter of Brexit, and comedian and satirist Andrew Doyle, a trenchant critic of ‘woke’ culture and – you guessed it – a vocal supporter of Brexit. Unsurprisingly, GB News is being compared to Fox News, the American channel which was such a favourite of former US president Donald Trump for its outspoken, right-leaning views.
Who’s funding it?
Discovery, Inc., owners of the Discovery channel, is reported to have invested heavily, as have Dubai-based private investment firm Legatum and hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall, whose previous punts include a £100,000 donation to the Leave campaign ahead of the 2016 European referendum. The channel's holding company is All Perspectives Ltd – something of a hostage to fortune if, as critics suspect, the coverage is skewed always to the right – and GB News’s Chief Executive Officer is one Angelos Frangopoulos, formerly head of Sky News Australia.
What does Andrew Neil say?
“GB News will not be yet another echo chamber for the metropolitan mindset that already dominates so much of the media,” he writes in a ‘welcome letter’ on the channel’s website. “It is our explicit aim to empower those who feel their stories, their opinions, their concerns have been ignored or diminished. We are proud to be British – the clue is in the name.”
And how did the launch night go?
Not brilliantly. It was beset by technical problems and the social media response has not been kind. “If someone told me #GBNews was a deleted scene from Black Mirror I’d probably believe them,” was typical of the kind of tweets it generated.
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