Ian Dunt has written an absolute Dunt of a piece for the i.
Its title, “GB News used to be a joke – now it’s dangerous” reminds me of the phrase: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” It looks like the mainstream media have officially reached phase three, which means winning is just around the corner!
With the kind of unintentional hilarity typical of Dunt types, he writes: “Very quietly, [GB] has become one of the most pernicious parts of the broadcasting landscape” and claims, with a level of hyperbole that would embarrass the most pernicious of shock jocks, that GB has “dedicated itself to conspiracy theories on the furthest fringes of the right”.
Dunt continues:
For years, the regulatory environment in the U.K. was based on an assumption of gentlemanly conduct, in which they kept a vague eye on people who were ultimately acting in good faith. The BBC and Sky generally made sure that most debates featured voices from both sides. Stations like LBC approached balance across the schedule instead of per debate, alternating right-wing hosts with more progressive ones. But GB News has jettisoned that approach. It is quite clear where its hosts are coming from. There is no equivalent of James O’Brien.
On that last point, we can all be grateful. While the idea that the BBC and Sky are balanced is, at this stage, laughable, and is of course a large part of the reason GB needed to be created. Dunt also neglects to mention that LBC drove Nigel Farage out, and has lately abandoned any semblance of balance, now largely consisting of Emily Maitlis and Keir Starmer getting all moist about Davos.
Dunt generously concedes:
They do invite liberal or left-wing guests on – there was a point where I was receiving a text from them every week until they finally got the message to f*** off. But inviting on some normal guests in order to conceal the overall thrust of your editorial position is not balance or accuracy. It is camouflage.
Ah, the old ‘refusing to go on the channel while condemning it for not having people like you on’ gambit. Backed up by the now high status needless swearing of the craft beer set, who think Led By Donkeys is the height of satire. Topped off with the amusing idea that only lefties are ‘normal’.
Eventually, we get to the real issue – Dunt’s guilt for appearing on Russia Today:
I learned this lesson for myself the hard way, when I used to go on Russia Today years back. Sweet naive child that I was, I thought it was a free speech issue. They had a right to broadcast. I would go on there and deliver the liberal message. As long as nothing I said was misrepresented or censored, there was no problem.
That turned out to be a deeply foolish assessment. No matter what you say as a guest, the overall structure of the narrative is designed to mislead and deceive. It is aimed not at expanding free speech, but making it impossible by undermining the evidential base it needs to function.
In other words, Dunt appeared on a far more controversial channel than GB, and is thus desperate to win back points with the Establishment, which is now done by using sophistry to undermine free speech.
Dunt’s piece comes just as journalist Michael Crick bizarrely claimed that GB should have been closed down by Ofcom at the very start. I say bizarre because, to me, GB broadcasts the widest range of views of any TV news channel.
The attacks have gone from ridiculing supposedly low viewing figures, to claiming the station is a deadly threat. Whichever line of attack they go with next, the question remains: why are the established media so afraid of GB News?
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The only thing I watched on GB News was Mark Steyn’s show
It had a shaky start but I watch quite a lot now: Nigel, Neil Oliver, Lawrence Fox and sometimes Mark Dolan and others (usually on catch up).
Initially I felt I had a duty to support it, but now I know it is essential. The Establishment will do everything in its power to silence dissent.
It’s a shame he’s gone but would still rather have GB News than any of the rest.
If the only thing you watched on GB News was Mark Steyn’s show, then you can’t criticise anything else on GB News.
I recommend watching Free Speech Nation on Sunday evenings.
I have seen other things – Dan Wooton, that guy on Friday evening and Neil Oliver, who’s a bit much for me. But I wouldn’t deliberately ‘tune in’ for any of these
I watch (or listen to without watching) quite a lot of GB News, but the only programmes I’ve made a point of never missing have been Mark Steyn and Free Speech Nation.
Did you not also like Neil Oliver’s (well-justified) rants?
Neil Oliver is the only one still speaking out. The rest have all dumbed down in deference to Ofcom.
That was a diabolical disgrace. But if Mark had been a bit more canny he would have maybe avoided that situation. His exposure of Rotherham etc, and WEF and the “Teutonic megalomaniac hiding in plain sight” was for free speech people a breath of fresh air compared to the BBC and SKY globalist lackeys. ——-I recorded Steyn every night and sad to see he is no longer there. ——-GB news can bring the message but must do it in a way that does not get them fined by OFCOM and then the public can have no more excuses, because the opposing view has then been put right in front of their face. All issues must be debated and when they can’t be then it is clear that the issue has been politicised, like eg with the issue of climate. When you cannot ask questions or debate it then it is clearly a manufactured crisis. ————Hey Mr Steyn. ——Thankyou mate and good luck.
I watched Lawrence Fox / Neil Oliver yesterday (on catchup, it was broadcast on Friday).
Fox gave a magnificent defence of Mark Steyn and gave Ofcom both barrels in the service of free speech. He was amazing.
He then interviewed Michael Crick, lefty journalist from C4 “news.” Crick announced that he was dissatisfied with Steyn’s ousting ….. he wanted GB News shut down completely ….. because it has the temerity to have many presenters who obviously have conservative opinions.
He excused the blatant left-wing bias from the BBC we have endured for well over a decade and rejected a similar demand to close that down because “they are making efforts now to rebalance.” He said nothing about the even more rabidly left-wing C4 “news” of course.
The left-wing Establishment is terrified of GB News. Their presenters are saying what they know a majority of the British people support and believe …… the Establishment will do everything it possibly can to close it down.
Yeah and can you imagine the message that’d send if they did cancel GB News? It’d be an admission, plus it would be the equivalent of encouraging people to seek out the books the dictators saw fit to burn. GBN has too big an audience now so good luck to TPTB in that particular authoritarian endeavor. It reminds me of horse-face Ardern and her ”We are the One Truth” speech. So everything is classed as misinformation and lies unless you heard it from the ‘approved channels’. Nothing Orwellian about that at all of course..
Correct. It’s why I see it as my duty to watch it.
It would seem the owners of GB News themselves are perhaps a bit frightened of their own creation too, given what has happened with Mark Steyn.
I think they’re walking a tightrope (and know it). They are slowly trying to move the trajectory of political discussion and couldn’t risk (the marvellous) Steyn from giving Ofcom the ammunition to close them down.
I wonder about that.
Would Ofcom really shut a news channel down? It would be such a huge move. Is suspect it is one of those threats that when challenged never come to pass.
My guess is it’s about money and financial risk, hence the attempt to pass on liabilities to Steyn himself, assuming that’s true.
In my opinion the owners of GB News need a return on their investment which comes in the form of advertising revenue.
Yes, Ofcom may choose to fine them but it is highly they would shut them down. GB News may not be too troubled by the fines but they may fear the degree of influence Ofcom can exercise over the corporate advertising agencies that choose where to direct the huge sums of advertising monies of their corporate clients whose executives have already swallowed the whole woke ESG regime?
So who are the owners of GB News?
Consider:
Paul Marshall and Legatum…hmmmm…
And what about ‘UnHerd’? Is that all it’s cracked up to be?
Source: GB News presenter quits after channel tries to make him pay Ofcom fines | GB News | The Guardian
Unherd is a Limited Hangout bag of sheite.
Apologies to bags of sheite.
Agree.
Also from The Guardian article…
Ofcom compliance…
This is one sinister organisation…
According to the Ofcom website: “Our duties come from Parliament.”
So Ofcom is the government censor?
Also: “Our priority is to look after you, and we sometimes do this by promoting competition among companies we regulate.”
How paternalistic…and so much for the ‘competition’ when it seems they threaten to shut down alternative points of view.
Among other things, Ofcom ensures:
So it’s the Ministry of Truth?
Who are the people behind Ofcom? See: Ofcom Board
Also: “We are independent, and funded by fees paid to us by the companies we regulate.” Really?!
Thanks for the link to the Ofcom board. I notice the little rainbow colours under each photo.
Re the Ofcom Board, under Functions and role:
Look at this!
(My emphasis.)
Wow! So whoever sets the dominant line, that’s it, no dissent allowed. And this is how the media is being run…
Thank you for that link to Ofcom’s Board.
I see that, as with the Boards of so very many ‘right-on’ organisations, ramming Woke diversity down our throats, they display so very little ‘diversity’ in their own make-up.
In Ofcom’s case, of the twelve Board members, every single one is ‘hideously white‘ (as Greg Dyke, BBC Director-General, described the management of the BBC in 2001. It didn’t change much until only five years ago).
Yet this would be the same Ofcom which published a report stating that BBC News is seen by some as representing a “white, middle class and London-centric point of view” that is “not relevant to their lives”.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/bbc-ofcom-report-diversity-transparency-pay-presenters-a9169631.html
The same Ofcom that said that diversity in top media jobs is ‘woeful’.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/sep/29/diversity-in-top-media-jobs-is-woeful-says-ofcom
No-one expects people to share the same views. We will all disagree on issues. So often what really rankles so many people is the outright, barefaced hypocrisy of organisations like Ofcom, the BBC, the National Trust, the Tate and univerisites (I dunno what the current figures are, but there were 25 black women and 90 black men among 19,000 professors in 2016-17, that’s 0.6% of male professors & 0.5% of female professors).
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/sep/07/uk-university-professors-black-minority-ethnic
.
P.S. Not forgetting the arch hypocrite, The Guardian, where no standard goes undoubled.
“Poor? Stupid? Racist? Then don’t listen to a pampered white liberal like me ‘It’s all right for you,’ say the white underclass. And it is all right for us – very much so.
Establishment liberals have it every way. When was the last time a white newspaper editor, a barrister or a white Minister felt his job was threatened by black or Asian rivals?
When we talked about this at an Observer meeting, not a black face was visible.
Actually, that’s not quite true. There was one black guy who passed. He was pushing the coffee-trolley.”
Andrew Marr, The Guardian, February 1999.
https://www.theguardian.com/Columnists/Column/0,,311213,00.html
I watched it live, and it seemed to me that Lawrence Fox had a tough job to deal with Crick, who liked the sound of his own voice. And I used to watch Channel 4 news in the past.
Crick is a pathetic excuse for a journalist who, like all preachers of woke, believes he holds the One Truth and never misses an opportunity to inflict it upon anyone who will listen.
Clearly no-one in Westminster takes him seriously, as he’s usually seen running around with his Socialist Worker scarf round his neck, shouting questions at some politician on the other side of the road who studiously ignore him.
“why are the established media so afraid of GB News?”
I would think for the same reason the left in general are afraid of the right. They’ve seized power and don’t want to lose it, but consciously or subconsciously realise that there are a lot of naturally right-wing people in this world who might give them problems if their feelings are roused – see Brexit, Trump, Meloni, Bolsonaro, Orban, Le Pen.
Msm doesn’t report it just transcribes!
GB news has more balls and investigates!
It’s not completely investigative but it’s the best and closest for now.
Dunt clearly has a very strange view of free speech.
It seems to involve restrictions not freedoms. It seems to involve silence not speech.
I watch the channel and it regularly has comment by an i-news journalist; he presents one of the most warped views of the world I have ever heard.
In my opinion the more these views are presented to the world the quicker their dystopia will be exposed.
“The BBC and Sky generally made sure that most debates featured voices from both sides…….but GB News has jettisoned that approach”. Lol.
I must have missed the blessed BBC et al giving a platform to scientists/experts who disagree with the/their narrative on:-
Climate change;
Net Zero;
Covid pandemic;
mRNA vaccines;
Ukraine.
Clown World continues to thrive in the MSM.
I haven’t watched in literally years, but they used to have the token person from the other side of the debate, usually outnumbered, to ridicule the position and make it look like a minority viewpoint.
When the Beeb had ‘antivaxxers’ on Question Time, supposedly to provide balance, they managed to choose the most unhinged, inarticulate numpty they could find. No chances of getting Gupta, Henegan, or any of the other voices we can list from memory.
Similarly with the Unvaccinated “documentary”. There were a couple of switched on guests who spoke their minds but they either edited out most of their views, or spun them to sound looney.
My mum had of course seen this rot, and referred to it as ‘a nice balanced piece’, refusing to believe otherwise.
Re the BBC and ‘anti-vaxxers’, consider my BMJ rapid response published in February 2019, which refers to the biased BBC Newsnight program ‘Why the anti-vaccination movement is wrong’.
‘Pharma-led chorus’ dominates the public narrative on vaccination
Don’t be silly, why would there be anyone who disagrees with all this when climate change is “settled”, Net Zero is what we need to do to survive (obviously), the pandemic was the worst the world has ever known, vaccines are our saviour and Zelenski’s the new messiah! How could anyone even think otherwise?!
Ah, yes. “The science is settled.”
But isn’t that what the Catholic Church told Galileo about heliocentricity? Within five years they knew the Church knew it was wrong, but took a further 200 years before it would admit it.
As for climate change, the science telling us of an impending ice age was settled in 1970.
“Ecology: A Cause Becomes A mass Movement”
“Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support each of the following predictions:
Life, 30 January, 1970
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bFAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA3&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false
If Katie Hopkins’ take on the situation is correct, the answer to the question Nick is “they aren’t”. I’m a follower of GB News to the exclusion of all TV MSM outlets, but I found Katie Hopkin’s 9min 38s monologue from four days ago very thought provoking. As she points out in an offering two days ago, “First they came for Steyn. No! First they came for Tommy”. (Robinson).
In the USA Ron Desantis has the motto ‘Education not Indoctrination’, in so far as the MSM is afraid of GB News it seems to me it is because GB News makes a half-hearted attempt at ‘Information not Indoctrination’. GB News is better than nothing but it is hardly news utopia, if the output from GB News is worrying the MSM then it shows the extent to which the MSM output is biased, woke, unfounded indoctrinating drivel which they need to protect at all costs to maintain the nonsense.
The man is a walking human typo.
I have to say, Nick Dixon writes very well. I suppose it helps that I agree with what he says most of the time, but in any case.his command of the craft is undeniable.
Nick Dixon writes well but does he actually know anything substantial or is he just a literate right of centre commentator? I know he has stiff competition with the scientists and specialists here on DS, but I do find his contributions rather light weight.
OT. Has anyone else noticed how slow the DS website has become. It is that not me because Breibart snd Guido load fast.
I’ve had no problems with the DS website, it loads almost instantly, on my Apple devices.
Same. All other sites I’ve had no probs with but this one has sometimes failed to load altogether since yesterday or just takes ages. Yet another glitch in the DS matrix possibly..
It’s been slower than a sloth in treacle the last few days – both my iPhone and Linux box. Every other ‘sites load fine.
The same for me. The site took ages to load and the comments wouldn’t appear in some cases.I emailed the Sceptic and was old they’d not had any other comments about that and that it was working fine at their end. Everything is working fine in our house. My computer is a MacBook Air and all th esoftwear is up to date.
Other sites loaded fine. It’s a bit better today.
I’m on a MacBook Air too, and this website loads instantly today, and the same on a Mini iPad and an iPhone, and also on a Lenovo PC. Maybe I happened to miss the times when it wasn’t loading quickly.
One of the many mysteries of the on-line world!
I also had the non-existent comment section. Appears to work fine after 09:30. Could be auto-updating/plugins/1000 other reasons?
Yes, I had noticed that things improved later in the morning. I usually look at the site about 7.30am os perhaps you’re right about the1000 reasons!
I’ve had issues on and off with loading too Gef, so you’re not alone. This morning was definitely treacle-y, with no comment sections and – curiously – the ‘donate’ stuff up the right side in Dutch! In the past I’ve found clearing history and rebooting helps, but couldn’t be bovvered today, it’s been OK since lunchtime.
Onward and upward…
You can’t have it both ways; low viewing figures are incompatible with being a “deadly threat”!
“… used to be a threat, now it’s dangerous” – Yes, dangerous it is – as an upcoming rival to the main broadcasters. Dangerous to the predominating hegemony over the narrative that is slowly slipping away from what was once the death grip of the mainstream media.
They’re not used to the democratization of the truth, they’re used to being worshipped as sacrosanct truth-providers, and can’t reconcile the idea of people casting a wider ideological net than the days of media idol-worship.
GBN has been a refreshing development over the last couple of years, compared with the established news organisations. A bit like this place; money talks, and we all have contributed to this one, at least to be able to comment here. Of course, there are quiet a few characters involved in GBN which I would not have supported in the past, but there it is. It’s often best to take account of the output, rather than the past. Whatever the source of revenue, in addition to advertising sales, it’s existence is a good feature compared with caving in to the bureaucratic set up.
This is absolutely run-of-the-mill “Shutdown everything we don’t control by screaming Nazis! Nazis! Nazis! all of the time” (please spare me new-fangled euphemisms like [extreme] right-wing. That’s what they mean to convey.) The attempt to appear more sophistcated than that by using loads of abstract filler words and phrases with no real meaning doesn’t really distract from the abysmal primitivity of the actual message.
Eg, the overall structure of the narrative is designed to mislead and deceive. It is aimed not at expanding free speech, but making it impossible by undermining the evidential base it needs to function.
Plain English version: Climate change will kill us all unless these people are silenced!
Ofcom censors the truth
*****
*****
Stand in the Park Make friends & keep sane
Sundays 10.30am to 11.30am
Elms Field
near Everyman Cinema & play area
Wokingham RG40 2FE
Agree with you 100% LS, but for goodness sake enough of the Stand in the Park plug with every single flipping comment!
WE KNOW! Everyone who is ever likely to be within reach of Wokingham etc on a Sunday morning has got the message. For the rest of us its just an irritation and we scroll on by !
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Except these days… correction needed.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then they win.”
As Oscar Wilde said, “There is only one thing worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about it.”
Is anyone talking about Talk TV?
Is anyone watching Talk TV?
So hopefully more people will start watching GB News thanks to the free publicity from people like Ian Dunt.
It reminds me of how I started watching Minder for the first time in the 1980s. I had never seen it, and had no intention of ever watching it, until I heard there had been a lot of complaints about the violence in it, and so I watched it so that I too could be appalled by the violence! But instead I loved it, and saw very little violence to complain about, and I watched every episode, and I’m still watching it (currently on ITV4) thanks to those people who complained about it!
Such a pity that GB news refused to stand by Mark Steyn. He was the driving force behind talking about real news that the MSM completely ignore or flat out censor. Whether it was COVID vaccine harms/deaths, grooming gangs, censorship of free speech, the end of fair elections in the USA, the pathetic woke Leftist nature of our so-called “Conservative” party, he was pretty much the first. And he was definitely the FIRST to call out Boris for what he was as prime minister, a total waste of time.
Aljazeera is the only news show in town
The BBC over focus on UK news + progressive propaganda very destructive
If they split the license fee into two + made it opt in
1) Entertainment
2) News
News would be finished
There is no doubt that Mark Steyn was the real deal and he presented a brilliant programme which had a massive and growing following.The failure of GB news to stand by him has I’m afraid undermined my confidence in them.I note DS has not yet dealt with this issue.
I I tend to agree with Lawrence Fox, Ofcom and the like are the real problem and those who support freedom should stick together. Anyhow, they’re the best we’ve got of the major news channels and I’ll be sticking with them.
“I note DS has not yet dealt with this issue.”
Mark Steyn’s show is now available from his website. Steyn wrote recently that while three of the guests he features regularly have agreed to continue appearing with him (and presumably in doing are eliminating themselves from further appearances on GB News) Toby Young has been asked but has not accepted. Can’t blame Toby for that – maybe he reckons he can have more impact appearing on Dewbs, Farage, etc. Maybe there are other reasons. But that could be why the DS hasn’t weighed in.
I agree Steyn’s departure is disappointing. But undoubtedly OFCOM has GB News it its crosshairs, and could probably bleed it to death with a series of fines.
Agree with most of that, however the publicity and public support on offer for standing UP to Ofcom could increase GBNews viewership AND draw attention to the important issues (almost by definition) in contention. Unless UK media stands up to to the state, for which Ofcom is a mere surrogate, then it will become increasingly restrictive.
I think it’s a shame that Mark Steyn has gone as he has done fantastic work shining a light on the grooming gangs and the vaccine injured, both subject matters that are largely ignored by the mainstream media. I do enjoy Headliners, Free Speech Nation, and Neil Oliver’s show. However, the latter has, understandably, at
times become quite doom laden. Aside from GBNews I now rely on Substack and Twitter to find out what’s actually going on in the world as I’ve lost complete faith in the BBC, ITV etc.
Since the Mark Steyn revelations I have realised that no media regulated by Ofcom is free of the heavy hand the UK state. To that degree they cannot be trusted to be saying what they want to say or cover stories outside the Ofcom Overton window. That is not journalistic freedom, that is censorship and I will no longer consume any UK media. There is a plethora of excellent video and audio stations online and with Substack who would ever need to read a newspaper again?
I was an avid watcher of GBNews until they succeeded in getting rid of Mark Steyn and none of the other presenters supported him. Now I believe GBNews is “controlled opposition” and all those presenters who did not make a stand are also controlled, apart from Neil Oliver who is still speaking out. It has definitely been “dumbed down” and even the more free speech presenters have moderated their reporting. We need a station like GBNews but it is no longer fulfilling the role it was. I presume other pro free speech reporters have got too much to lose to not conform to Ofcom’s demands, but it is very disappointing.
To continue to grow and regain free speech supporters, GB News needs to resolve its spat with Mark Stein. Mark gains support not only because of his outspoken broadcasting (which sometimes he would probably admit goes a bit too far) but also his recent brush with serious health issues. Surely it’s possible to find a way to put this behind them and get on with showing how biased the rest of the media are.
Having seen the details and background of the Ofcom board (thanks for the link), as expected it has a disproportionately high number of civil servants and globalists and not one person with any record of fighting for free speech. I fear for the way it will treat any non-conformist comment from broadcasters like GB News when they depart from the government line.
BBC are balanced ????? It would be funny if it were not so pathetic. They take all our monies for their license fee and promote the Liberal Progressive point of view on every issue. But half of us are NOT Liberal progressives which means essentially, we are paying for our own brainwashing. ——-How about SKY? Well a good example was their Daily Climate Show which was on at 6 pm every night. The presenter stood there with a big screen behind, and on it among other things was this little digital thermometer ticking up and up and up in little increments, indicating that we are warming the planet and anyone could see it up there on the screen. So it must be true. They were not in the least bit impartial, were and still are not interested in questioning any of the absurd claims made about the climate, and were and still are simply activists for a political agenda that seeks to use climate to control the worlds wealth and resources and force green energy on us all and actually evolved into the bigger more encompassing Agenda 2030 which not only wants to take away our fossil fuels which gave us the standard of living we now have, but wants to control nearly every aspect of human activity. They call this Sustainable Development, and it is perhaps the most insidious political Agenda of all. BBC and SKY are clearly fully onboard with this globalism and I have watched carefully as GN News has progressed. But it must learn from the Mark Steyn example and be more cunning in exposing the globalist agenda and not fall foul of the regulatory regime that clearly falls on the side of the establishment. —-GB news cannot be the David Icke of TV News but it can question every dogma, and it can do so in a subtle way, and then it is up to public to learn more for themselves, because there are plenty resources on the internet. Or at least there are at the moment but “Online Safety” seems to be on the hunt to silence the “deplorables”.