A coffee chain has become the latest company to pull advertising from GB News in a “massive advertising boycott” that has left the channel struggling to secure vital advertising income. The Telegraph has the story.
Grind, a network of cafes with 14 outlets across London, confirmed this week that it had cancelled “all future spend” with GB News after it was criticised by a campaign group for advertising on the channel.
In a message to the business on Twitter last week, climate pressure group Stop Funding Heat said: “Hi Grind – we’re sorry to say that your advertising has been spotted showing up on GB News… surely this isn’t the kind of channel you want to be aligned with?”
It posted a video of extracts from GB News coverage of climate issues, in which presenters called the activist Greta Thunberg “this annoying little Swedish teenager”.
On Monday, Grind announced that it would no longer be advertising with the channel.
In a reply, Grind said: “We’d like to thank you for bringing this to our attention, needless to say we’ve pulled all future spend from GB News.”
GB News presenter Michelle Dewberry said the coffee shop’s withdrawal was damaging to free speech. In a broadcast on the channel, she said: “We are subject to a massive advertising boycott and we have been ever since, well before we’d even broadcast a second’s worth of content.”
“Politically motivated online pressure groups have made it their life’s work to try and close us down.”
Reclaim Party leader Laurence Fox and journalist Emma Woolf, among others, have called for a boycott of Grind under the Twitter hashtag ‘#BoycottGrind’.
“Will never buy your products ever. I encourage anyone who supports free speech to #BoycottGrind. Get your coffee stuff from somewhere else. Companies who promote censorship like @grind should be ground out of existence. Hit them where it hurts,” Fox wrote.
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