Ofcom “Covers Up” Data Showing GB News More Trusted Than BBC

Media regulator Ofcom has been accused of covering up data showing that GB News is more trusted by its viewers than the BBC is trusted by its own viewers. The Telegraph has the story.

The watchdog’s latest news consumption survey found that GB News viewers score the channel more highly for trustworthiness than viewers of the BBC, Sky News, ITV and Channel 4 score those channels.

GB News was also ranked by its viewers above all other British broadcasters for the range of viewpoints on offer and scored first equal with Sky for impartiality.

Ofcom has in previous years published these figures alongside a press release summarising its main findings.

However, the regulator omitted the figures from this year’s survey, which was published last week. It released them online following a request from GB News.

The oversight has prompted accusations that Ofcom deliberately sought to suppress the true scale of GB News’s popularity among viewers.

A GB News spokesman said: “These figures prove why GB News is Britain’s undisputed number one news channel.

“Our viewers and listeners trust us to provide them with news, and our bold and fearless journalism is connecting with communities everywhere.”

An Ofcom spokesman said: “An administrative error led to a short delay in publishing the underlying data for this year’s report, which we corrected as soon as we became aware.

“More broadly, not all of the vast amounts of data we produce can be included in the main report, which focused on our key findings.”

It comes at a critical time for broadcasters as they grapple with the shift to streaming and a tidal wave of often unreliable information circulating online.

In June, the Government set out proposals to require social media apps such as YouTube, Facebook and X to prominently feature material from “trusted” news providers.

But Ministers have failed to explain how broadcasters or newspapers would qualify as a trusted news source, triggering concerns that the Government could ultimately influence where people get their news from.

Worth reading in full.