Guido I’m A Celeb Claim WRONG

One group of media observers never learns, and that is the cohort willing to take the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog on trust. Rather too much of what emanates from them is right-wing propaganda - such as recycling press releases from the so-called Taxpayers Alliance and the rest of the Tufton Street gang - and there is a significant amount of pro-Tory spin. And then there are the flat-out gaffes.

WRONG

Or, as some might call them, talking well, but lying badly. Today has brought a particularly fine example as the Fawkes folks have attempted to polish the usually unflushable turd that is former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, only to find themselves covered in more than confusion.

Nige is the star turn on this year’s series of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, with ITV for some reason ponying up well north of the cool million mark in order to secure his attendance Down Under. And rather than give him a brief mention and point out that he’s a spiv and a congenital liar of no known principle, The Great Guido has sung The Great Man’s praises.

So it was that readers still awake were told at 1059 hours this morning of “Farage’s Jungle Challenge Debut”, with those chez Fawkes gushing “Farage’s debut on I’m A Celebrity last night didn’t fail to entertain, as he was made to stick his head in box of snakes to win tokens. Farage wasn’t concerned about the challenge, joking he’s had experience with snakes before … in the European Parliament”. Laugh? I thought I’d never start.

But there was, sadly, more: “The GB News presenter said he hoped those who hate him will hate him a little less after the show, admitting he could understand why Hancock joined the show last year. Though not sure even a reality show could clear Hancock’s reputation”. Yes? Yes yes? Yes yes yes?

And then came the howler, made that much worse as it had already been rumbled an hour before. “Over 10 million viewed the show last night making it ITV’s highest rating of the year, and up by over 1 million viewers on last year’s launch. So much for the boycott from the left”. Yeah, take that Rotten Lefties™! Nige’s ratings are bigger than yours!! Nyah nyahdy nyah nyah!!!

But, as Captain Blackadder might have observed, there was only one thing wrong with the viewing claim: it was bollocks. We know this as another of those making the 10 million plus claim, Brexiteer Martin “Dipshit” Daubney, had sneered “I’m A Celebrity viewing figures peak at 10.3 million … ITV’s highest rating of the year … 1 million more than last year”. There was more.

“All thanks to Nigel Farage. Some ‘boycott’”! He even helpfully added a link to the ITV press release. But the bad news was not long in coming, as the Tweeter known as Otto English broke it to Daubs gently: “This press release is from November 2022”. Super TV had the right story.

“RATINGS [I’m A Celeb] returned to 6.95 million viewers last night - the lowest launch rating since SERIES ONE in 2002 … It’s down 2.2 MILLION on last year’s opener”. And the time stamp on that Tweet? 0959 hours. That’s a whole hour before The Great Guido. It appears that Daubney then deleted his effort. And the time on the Otto English Tweet? 1019 hours.

So have the Fawkes folks deleted their post? Still live, and still unaltered, at 1520 hours, or five hours after Otto English. Heck, even the BBC has got the story, telling “The return of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! was watched by an average of seven million viewers on Sunday according to overnight ratings … That's just over two million fewer than watched the first episode last year, which attracted 9.1m”. That’s been up for more than an hour.

And even Adam Brooks, aka Essex PR, held up his hands, admitted he got it wrong, and conceded that the viewer numbers were down on last year. But while Twitter, X, or whatever Muskrat is calling it this week, is having a field day at “Dipshit” Daubney’s momentary embarrassment, the Fawkes rabble does not appear to have been called out. Not yet, at any rate.

Good of them to remind us of their gold standard journalism. Or maybe not.

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