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 garden” he 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"
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 her “But Michelle … You’re not a news channel? Merely an ‘entertainment channel’ … Or have Ofcom got that wrong?” Nick Jones added “They 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 concluded “Just [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.
https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton
That pile of gammon shite isn't even “Opinutainment”. It's far right propaganda.
ReplyDeleteAs 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteThat 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.
DeleteWell I'll never go on an open-top bus again if ythrowing blocks of cement at Nigel Farage is banned.
ReplyDelete'Ythrowing', as we all know, is what Farage haters did in Chaucer's time
DeleteTo 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!
DeletePLEADED guilty, Tim.
ReplyDeleteIDGAF 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.
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.
DeleteWell said! It's about time the "but language evolves" twerps were firmly slapped.
DeleteThis "drop their t's" thing.
DeleteMancs are the weirdest. For instance, "Right twat" in their mouths comes out as "Rye twah". Very strange people (in more than one way).
The snobbery of a certain type of English socialist is always fun to witness.
DeleteEven funnier to see some self-styled "centrist" who is "back for [yet another] one last time". Until the next time of course.
DeleteI 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?
ReplyDeletejust 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 ….
ReplyDeleteGBeebies.
ReplyDelete"Cement"?
ReplyDeleteNow 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteIt's only a matter of time before she morphs into an upfront Foghorn Leghorn again. She's a "perfect" fit for the Gammon System.
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...
Deletewords have to be shortened
ReplyDeleteYet 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!