GB News - Fans Not Happy

The date has now been set, media watchers have their diaries set and their appraisals waiting, and some of the public are ready to tune in: Gammon Broadcasting News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) will at last go on air during the evening of June 13, with a special programme imaginatively titled Welcome To GB News.

That originality extends to some of the programmes you will be able to see on the new channel, such as “Dewbs & Co” (not “Varney & Co” then), “Alastair Stewart & Friends” (not “Fox and Friends”, then), “Tonight Live with Dan Wootton” (not “Tucker Carlson Tonight” then), “Free Speech Nation” (not “Fox Nation”, then), “DePiero and Halligan” (not “Hannity and Colmes”, then) and “The Great British Breakfast” (not “The Big Breakfast”, then).

It was the last-named show that set the assembled Gammonati off: after Alastair Stewart had been characterised by the increasingly wayward Mail on Sunday by claims such as “I won't be walking on eggshells now I'm at anti-woke GB News”, the line-up for that new breakfast offering triggered many potential viewers - maybe putting them off viewing.

The problem with claims such as “anti-Woke” is a case of stating the bleeding obvious: “Woke” means simply “alert to injustices in society, especially racism”. So being “anti-woke” means not caring about societal injustice and condoning racism. No-one at GB News seems to have thought this one through. The thought occurs that, maybe, Brillo and his pals have just been sounding off without figuring out what such terms actually mean.

So it was that a breakfast show line-up with only one bloke among the six presenters, and two of the woman presenters not being white, caused alarm among those eagerly counting down to launch day. “Oh dear one Male and five Female. Not a good balance for a start!” moaned one onlooker. “Oh dear, Femfest! May as well watch Sky news” sighed another.

One Tweeter was rather more forthright: “I suppose white males will soon be eradicated anyway … good luck with the launch though and I hope it’s successful”. Court bigots, get bigots. And talking of that W-Word, out it came. “Woke lot already over taken GB news … Bit too woke for me … I used to like GBNews but then it went all woke”.

You say you’re going to be “anti-woke”, those who aren’t really racist, honestly, are going to take you at your word. Other not-really-racist responses included “Noooooo. I didn't think you would be ticking boxes”, and as to what kind of box that meant, it wasn’t long before it was spelled out: “Seems that the 'diversity' box has been ticked!”

And those, whisper it quietly, are the potential viewers that GB News needs on board. Not only that, but signing up for extra content and stumping up a little hard cash for the privilege. Otherwise, the new channel will be burning through the cash so rapidly that it might just run out. And that’s a depressing prospect for what is looking increasingly like a vanity project for past-his-sell-by-date Brillo and his chosen acolytes.

Did anyone market test the GB News concept before the decision was taken to go ahead? Because if not, going ahead was A Very Brave Decision Indeed. Or maybe just foolhardy.

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