GB News - 1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back

Accompanied by a less than rapturous endorsement from head man Andrew Neil, the latest hire for Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) was unveiled recently: as predicted, former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage had been summoned to shore up ratings. As might be expected, Nige duly brought his usual Man-Of-The-People-Honestly-But-In-Reality-Cheap-City-Spiv act to the table.

Farage - what GB News thinks viewers want ...

And ratings, at least for the hour he was on air, responded well. The problem for Mr Thirsty was that his shows consisted predominantly of the one-trick Channel crossing migrant rant pony and very little else. So, as former BBC Robert Coxwell observed, the effect on ratings as the week went on was all too predictable: more dead cat than bright new star.

“On GB News on Monday Nigel Farage opened with around 100k viewers, nearly on par with BBC News. What about four days later? … Viewing figures, Thursday 22/07: At 19.00: BBC News: 132k, GB News: 67k … Average for the evening, 19.00 - 01.00: BBC News: 117k, Sky News: 71k, GB News: 27k”. What would Nige bang on about next?

He could tell his audience how wonderful and terribly wronged Combover Crybaby Donald Trump is. But he is likely to find that his audience isn’t interested in what happens outside their patch. He could bang on about the EU, and how rotten it is to the UK, but then, most of our free and fearless press have already been there. And then, and then.

While Farage is both the one step forward and one of the steps back for GB News, the second step back is all those people who want the channel to go full conspiracy theory wacko - on subjects like Covid-19 restrictions, vaccination, face coverings, scientific advice, and claims that there is some great plot out there coming to get them.

This might be otherwise termed Brillo’s last stand: he did claim, in his opening night monologue, that anyone doing conspiracy theories would be dealt with sternly. GB News wouldn’t deal in that sort of currency. The snag is that their potential audience wants them to do just that. Farage congratulated himself with “The media are finally catching up with me... The Times predicts 22,000 will illegally cross the channel this year”. Others didn’t.

“Where was [TalkRADIO and GB News] TODAY COVERING 110 PROTESTS AROUND THE WORLD just where are u dont [sic] pretend u care about the people turn up as journalists should do as i did and many others” … “[GB News] are an utter disgrace - any coverage of: #protest #ClotShot reactions #corruption”. And there was more.

“I wonder if GB News will cover these World protests and be on the right side of history?” … “Heard [GB News] talking about a protest in London and thought ‘Great some publicity against NaziPass’. No it's about LGBT rights in Uganda”. The audience for seeing FORRINS IN BOATS is dwindling. To keep the numbers up, Mr Thirsty will have to look elsewhere. Dare he ask Kate Shemirani to be a studio guest next week?

Of course, that would mean the last vestige of GB News’ credibility as a source of information being flushed down the pan. But financial survival, eh? Decisions, decisions.

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