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Thursday, 29 August 2024

GB News Complains - DIDDUMS

Several years ago, Jon Stewart coined a new term to describe Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse), in the wake of accusations that much of what the broadcaster put out was not news, but instead merely opinion, and despite the protestations of those at FNC such as Bill O’Reilly - claiming that the channel’s output was marked, like that of a newspaper.


You would expect a newspaper to separate news and comment, went Bill-O’s argument. But Stewart was having none of it: it was not Fox “News”, he concluded, but Fox “Opinutainment”. That term should be borne in mind when considering the low moaning sound emanating from Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) over its treatment by the Government.

The channel’s political editor Christopher “No” Hope had held his hand in the air during a recent Downing Street press conference, hoping that Keir Starmer would call on him to put a question. “[GB News] has only been called to ask a question by Sir Keir Starmer once in five press conferences since Labour’s election win last month. If you look closely you can spot me, with my hand in the air today in the Downing St gardenhe whinged to no avail.

Why would the PM ignore the entreaties of Hope, who represents the channel whose star presenter is self-appointed Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, a nailed-on congenital liar, racist bigot and con-man? About whom the channel had recently spun a pack of lies? Here’s the story.

From the BBC report, “A man who threw items towards Reform UK leader Nigel Farage during his general election campaign has been handed a suspended prison sentence. Josh Greally, from Chesterfield, was filmed throwing objects while Mr Farage was travelling on an open-top bus in Barnsley on 11 June”. He pled guilty. And the outcome?

He “was given a six-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months”. And what of those “objects” he chucked? “Video from the incident showed Mr Farage shielding his face while items, believed to be coffee cups, hit the side of the double-decker”. Coffee cups. And in the GB News retelling? “Farage attacker DODGES jail after hurling block of cement at Reform leader”.

Christopher Hope - like "hope someone tunes in"

Mr Thirsty has gone along with this, and is now putting out a Tweet claiming “Throw cement at me, walk free”. So how does GB News get away with this flagrant dishonesty? Simples. It tells broadcast regulator Ofcom that it is not a news broadcaster. Like Fox News Channel, its bag is “Opinutainment”. Not that presenter Michelle Dewberry has, it seems, received this message.

Off she went: “last night (day of Starmer’s speech) for a key news hour, 6pm, my show had much higher ratings than Sky News … We are not ‘hostile’, we would just ask challenging questions”. Yeah, right. Like an occasional left of centre voice is occasionally featured, just so they can be shouted down.

Trevor McArdle reminded herBut Michelle … You’re not a news channel? Merely an ‘entertainment channel’ … Or have Ofcom got that wrong?” Nick Jones addedThey tell Ofcom that they’re an ‘entertainment channel’ to escape sanction and Ofcom believe them. Then they bellyache about not being treated as a news organisation. Make your mind up lads or we might start thinking you’re trying to have it both ways and taking us all for fools”.

Mark Bentley concludedJust [GB News] having difficulty coming to terms with a new government that doesn’t accord it the undeserved preference that the previous one did. Never mind - they’ll be out of business in the next year or so”. Cruel. Cruel but fair: without tens of millions being thrown at it on a regular basis, the broadcaster cannot hope to be viable over time.

But there is some good news coming out of this noise floor whinging: Farage is now telling anyone not yet asleep “I’ll never go to the pub again if outdoor smoking is banned”. Like he was going to go and live elsewhere, but never did, because that, too, was another pack of lies. Which he can peddle on GB News, because it’s not a news channel. Hello Christopher Hope.

Labour treats GB News with contempt. Why not? Everyone else does.


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19 comments:

Anonymous said...

That pile of gammon shite isn't even “Opinutainment”. It's far right propaganda.

As are all the other corporate broadcast "news" bullshit manufacturers and liars. The only minor difference is that the others are marginally less obvious. A matter of degree, nothing more.

Which is the only reason the red tory Quiff Quisling avoids the gammon clerks.

Anonymous said...

GB news, a conspiracy peddling, lie machine that exists simply as a right wing talking shop. The broadcast version of the Daily Mail. It is however, not to be taken lightly. Just as Fox 'News' did, its pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable as a commercial, mainstream tv channel, and OFcom is letting it get away with it. Even if it eventually fails, if our weak knee'd 'regulator' continues to allow it to dodge and weave, all the while allowing it to break the rules, worse will follow. Fox is in no small part to blame for the mess that is US politics. GB news backers hope to do the same here.

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...

Well I'll never go on an open-top bus again if ythrowing blocks of cement at Nigel Farage is banned.

Anonymous said...

PLEADED guilty, Tim.

IDGAF if it sounds faragist but these americanisms pled, snuck, criminality etc boil my piss.

And twats who drop their t's when they speak. Just fuck RIGHT off.

Anywhoooo, isn't gammon broadcasting a self-described "entertainment channel"?

I mean, I detest the colossal tory bore that is keef smarmer, but even I don't expect him to answer questions from any old gobshite.

Mr Larrington said...

I for one welcome the advent of throwing cement at Fartrage as a new stunt for charity telethons. Is it OK to leave it in the mixer truck before propelling it in his direction?

Anonymous said...

just as bad as the infotainment and billious tripe spewed - are the pisspoor selection of presenters patrik crusthole, polly carvup, twinky tom, dopey daubney and silly debbie jewsberry ….

mikehineoftownchicago said...

'Ythrowing', as we all know, is what Farage haters did in Chaucer's time

Anonymous said...

To be fair to our beloved Nige (glory be to his exalted name) his threat to never frequent a pub again if Starmer bans beer garden smoking, is a move to be praised. Should he actually follow through with his threat, that's more than reason enough for me, and millions of others, to start supporting our local hostelrys again!

Anonymous said...

That pretty much sums it up - along with its Trump-like obsession with audience figures. Few may actually watch it, but many talk about it and that's where its influence lies.

Arnold said...

GBeebies.

Anonymous said...

"Cement"?

Now had it been mixed in the right proportions of aggregate, sand, water and steel reinforcement it might have been really useful. Though lifting and throwing it might have presented some mechanical and anatomical difficulties.

Anonymous said...

Never mind that. The unhinged Esther McVey has just used the "First they came for the communists" poem about the new smoking ban. Now call me a traditionalist but I don't think that the Holocaust and a smoking ban in public places is comparable.

It's only a matter of time before she morphs into an upfront Foghorn Leghorn again. She's a "perfect" fit for the Gammon System.

Anonymous said...

Bravo sir, and totally agree. While Farage and his fellow pub bores wasted hot air over the 'EU taking us over' a far more insidious and self serving entity was doing just that. Welcome to the 51st state. Our high streets dominated by US franchises, our car industry long ago taken over by US corporations, our NHS and other govt depts bought into by greedy, ruthless US hedge funds, but most irritating of all, is our language being Americanised. The sheer laziness of the American mind reflected in the fact that words have to be shortened, sentences truncated, and our sports bastardised and its technical terms superseded by meaningless US ones, just so they can, 'like, get into it'. Our education system is now based on theirs, regardless of the fact its among the worst in the developed world. Our health system is being corrupted into copying theirs. Our govt borrows heavily from the US playbook, right and far right. Sod Brexit, two fingers to the US of A would have been far more productive. Rant over.

Anonymous said...

Well said! It's about time the "but language evolves" twerps were firmly slapped.

Anonymous said...

Odd how mcvile and co had bugger all to say about it when Sunak proposed an even more draconian smoking ban not more than a month ago...

Anonymous said...

This "drop their t's" thing.
Mancs are the weirdest. For instance, "Right twat" in their mouths comes out as "Rye twah". Very strange people (in more than one way).

Andy McDonald, back for one last time said...

The snobbery of a certain type of English socialist is always fun to witness.

Anonymous said...

Even funnier to see some self-styled "centrist" who is "back for [yet another] one last time". Until the next time of course.

Anonymous said...

words have to be shortened

Yet the one that really grinds my gears is the idiocy of 'get go' instead of 'start'. Not only is it ridiculous, it has 2 syllables instead of only 1 with a space in between!