Right-Wing Media Watch – GB claims “It’s the kind of journalism you believe in”
If you were to catalogue all of GB News’ offences against its own claims of “honesty” and “balance,” you could fill a book.
An interesting subject line landed in my inbox from GB News this week (yes, I subscribe, purely to keep tabs on what they’re up to). It read: “Why GB News matters more than ever.”
The message came from Bev Turner, GB News host who, in 2023, faced criticism for tweeting that Covid “causes less harm to certain ethnicities — East Asians and Ashkenazi Jews (Fauci anyone?).”
Curious, I opened the email, though I already had a fair idea of what to expect.
Turner explained she had been in Washington DC this week, “speaking with journalists from across the spectrum.”
“And what struck me most was this: people are tired of being told one version of events. They want honesty, balance, and open debate.
“That’s exactly why I’m proud to be part of GB News. We don’t follow the pack. We don’t take our cues from the establishment. We tell it as we see it — and trust you, the viewer, to make up your own mind.
“If that’s the kind of journalism you believe in, I’d love for you to stand with us. Your support keeps independent journalism alive.”
It’s a slick pitch, but laced with irony. If you were to catalogue all of GB News’ offences against its own claims of “honesty” and “balance,” you could fill a book.
Instead, here are just a few of the channel’s more egregious ‘crimes.’
In September 2023, presenters Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson were fired, and Dan Wootton was suspended, after Fox made offensive remarks about a female journalist on Dan Wootton Tonight. The comments prompted 8,867 complaints to Ofcom.
When Ofcom ruled against the programme in March 2024, Wootton quit the network the following day, denouncing the regulator as “Ofcommunist censors” and claiming that its report “raised far bigger issues.”
The Muslim Council of Britain’s Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) found that during coverage of the far-right riots, GB News accounted for 62% of all clips on UK news channels that associated Muslims with the violence. The report concluded that the channel repeatedly framed Muslims as perpetrators rather than victims, downplaying attacks on mosques and Muslim communities and reinforcing a one-sided, hostile narrative.
Similarly, a 2024 Good Law Project investigation into a year of GB News output exposed what it described as an “unhealthy obsession” that paints a distorted picture of modern Britain.
Its analysis revealed that the word “illegal” is the single most common adjective used by GB News to describe people arriving in the UK, appearing before “migrant” or “immigrant” in 53% of instances. When related terms such as “boat,” “undocumented,” and “Calais” are included, the figure rises to 66%.
By contrast, positive descriptors such as “legal” or “skilled” appear only 4% of the time.
Also troubling, the word “Pakistani” was found to be most often used by the channel in connection with stories about child sexual abuse, reinforcing damaging stereotypes and perpetuating racial bias under the guise of “telling it like it is.”
In February this year, Ofcom received 1,227 complaints about comments made by GB News presenter Josh Howie on the programme Headliners. During a discussion about a sermon by a US bishop, Howie appeared to suggest that the LGBTQ+ community included paedophiles.
Although Howie later claimed his remark was intended as a “joke about paedophilia in the church,” the backlash was fast and brutal. The Good Law Project launched a petition against what it called “dangerous disinformation about LGBTQ+ people,” gathering more than 60,000 signatures. Ofcom has since said it is “carefully assessing” the complaints.
In response to repeated controversies, campaigns such as Boycott GB News have emerged to challenge the channel’s influence. The initiative encourages the public not to watch, quote, or fund GB News, and to contact advertisers directly, warning that continued support will cost them customers.
GB News may have enjoyed a good week – the BBC in crisis and the US president, via his lawyer, declaring he is “very fond” of the channel and “appreciates its fair and accurate reporting.” But pitching it as “the kind of journalism you believe in,” as Bev Turner did, is less a defence of journalism than a parody of it.
Yesterday
Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward
If you were to catalogue all of GB News’ offences against its own claims of “honesty” and “balance,” you could fill a book.
An interesting subject line landed in my inbox from GB News this week (yes, I subscribe, purely to keep tabs on what they’re up to). It read: “Why GB News matters more than ever.”
The message came from Bev Turner, GB News host who, in 2023, faced criticism for tweeting that Covid “causes less harm to certain ethnicities — East Asians and Ashkenazi Jews (Fauci anyone?).”
Curious, I opened the email, though I already had a fair idea of what to expect.
Turner explained she had been in Washington DC this week, “speaking with journalists from across the spectrum.”
“And what struck me most was this: people are tired of being told one version of events. They want honesty, balance, and open debate.
“That’s exactly why I’m proud to be part of GB News. We don’t follow the pack. We don’t take our cues from the establishment. We tell it as we see it — and trust you, the viewer, to make up your own mind.
“If that’s the kind of journalism you believe in, I’d love for you to stand with us. Your support keeps independent journalism alive.”
It’s a slick pitch, but laced with irony. If you were to catalogue all of GB News’ offences against its own claims of “honesty” and “balance,” you could fill a book.
Instead, here are just a few of the channel’s more egregious ‘crimes.’
In September 2023, presenters Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson were fired, and Dan Wootton was suspended, after Fox made offensive remarks about a female journalist on Dan Wootton Tonight. The comments prompted 8,867 complaints to Ofcom.
When Ofcom ruled against the programme in March 2024, Wootton quit the network the following day, denouncing the regulator as “Ofcommunist censors” and claiming that its report “raised far bigger issues.”
The Muslim Council of Britain’s Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) found that during coverage of the far-right riots, GB News accounted for 62% of all clips on UK news channels that associated Muslims with the violence. The report concluded that the channel repeatedly framed Muslims as perpetrators rather than victims, downplaying attacks on mosques and Muslim communities and reinforcing a one-sided, hostile narrative.
Similarly, a 2024 Good Law Project investigation into a year of GB News output exposed what it described as an “unhealthy obsession” that paints a distorted picture of modern Britain.
Its analysis revealed that the word “illegal” is the single most common adjective used by GB News to describe people arriving in the UK, appearing before “migrant” or “immigrant” in 53% of instances. When related terms such as “boat,” “undocumented,” and “Calais” are included, the figure rises to 66%.
By contrast, positive descriptors such as “legal” or “skilled” appear only 4% of the time.
Also troubling, the word “Pakistani” was found to be most often used by the channel in connection with stories about child sexual abuse, reinforcing damaging stereotypes and perpetuating racial bias under the guise of “telling it like it is.”
In February this year, Ofcom received 1,227 complaints about comments made by GB News presenter Josh Howie on the programme Headliners. During a discussion about a sermon by a US bishop, Howie appeared to suggest that the LGBTQ+ community included paedophiles.
Although Howie later claimed his remark was intended as a “joke about paedophilia in the church,” the backlash was fast and brutal. The Good Law Project launched a petition against what it called “dangerous disinformation about LGBTQ+ people,” gathering more than 60,000 signatures. Ofcom has since said it is “carefully assessing” the complaints.
In response to repeated controversies, campaigns such as Boycott GB News have emerged to challenge the channel’s influence. The initiative encourages the public not to watch, quote, or fund GB News, and to contact advertisers directly, warning that continued support will cost them customers.
GB News may have enjoyed a good week – the BBC in crisis and the US president, via his lawyer, declaring he is “very fond” of the channel and “appreciates its fair and accurate reporting.” But pitching it as “the kind of journalism you believe in,” as Bev Turner did, is less a defence of journalism than a parody of it.
Right-Wing Watch
Smear of the week: Fox’s racist poppy slur and the Polanksi white poppy meltdown
They’re damned if they don’t wear them, and damned if they do – ‘lefties’ and poppies that is.
Laurence Fox reached another new low this week, tweeting:
“This foreigner has no right to wear the poppy. Or to sit in parliament, for that matter, Go home @ZarahSultana.”
Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, is from Birmingham. Her family is of Pakistani ancestry, having settled in the city in the 1960s when her grandfather migrated from the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir.
As you might expect, Fox’s tweet sparked outcry but then, sigh, outcry is exactly what he wants.
Sultana responded with: “Go home… to Birmingham?”
Journalist and broadcaster Sangita Myska wrote: “The British Indian Army was the largest volunteer army in history during the WW2, with over 2.5 million men in its ranks. The war effort incl my family. It may have included Zarah Sultana’s. She was born in Birmingham; she’s British. She has every right to wear a poppy. As do I.”
She added: “Brown & Black people can’t win: If we don’t wear poppies and wave flags we’re told we’re not British. If we do wear poppies and wave flags we’re told we aren’t British and have no right to participate.”
Others dismissed Fox’s provocation as a cynical attempt to court engagement.
“The odious blue ticker really will just say anything for engagement in the hope of getting a cheque at the end of the month. He’s best ignored,” one user remarked.
Indeed, Fox has previously boasted about his income from Elon Musk’s platform, revealing that he made nearly $2,500 in August and $1,300 in July 2024.
“The irony of demented socialists paying for my dinner whilst I sit and do nothing is not lost on me,” he gloated.
Meanwhile, GB News worked itself into a frenzy over Green Party leader Zack Polanski wearing a white poppy at the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph. The white poppy is a long-established symbol of remembrance for all victims of war, both military and civilian, and of a commitment to peace.
Polanski, who in fact wore both a white and a red poppy, explained that the white poppy symbolises “looking ahead to the future and saying, we want a world of peace.”
Critics ridiculed GB News’ outrage. “If you zoom in real close, you’ll notice he’s wearing a red poppy too,” mocked one observer.
You’d think with all that’s going on in the world, a poppy pile on would be at the bottom of the pile, not the top.
Smear of the week: Fox’s racist poppy slur and the Polanksi white poppy meltdown
Yesterday
Left Foot Forward
You’d think with all that’s going on in the world, a poppy pile on would be at the bottom of the pile, not the top
Left Foot Forward
You’d think with all that’s going on in the world, a poppy pile on would be at the bottom of the pile, not the top
They’re damned if they don’t wear them, and damned if they do – ‘lefties’ and poppies that is.
Laurence Fox reached another new low this week, tweeting:
“This foreigner has no right to wear the poppy. Or to sit in parliament, for that matter, Go home @ZarahSultana.”
Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, is from Birmingham. Her family is of Pakistani ancestry, having settled in the city in the 1960s when her grandfather migrated from the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir.
As you might expect, Fox’s tweet sparked outcry but then, sigh, outcry is exactly what he wants.
Sultana responded with: “Go home… to Birmingham?”
Journalist and broadcaster Sangita Myska wrote: “The British Indian Army was the largest volunteer army in history during the WW2, with over 2.5 million men in its ranks. The war effort incl my family. It may have included Zarah Sultana’s. She was born in Birmingham; she’s British. She has every right to wear a poppy. As do I.”
She added: “Brown & Black people can’t win: If we don’t wear poppies and wave flags we’re told we’re not British. If we do wear poppies and wave flags we’re told we aren’t British and have no right to participate.”
Others dismissed Fox’s provocation as a cynical attempt to court engagement.
“The odious blue ticker really will just say anything for engagement in the hope of getting a cheque at the end of the month. He’s best ignored,” one user remarked.
Indeed, Fox has previously boasted about his income from Elon Musk’s platform, revealing that he made nearly $2,500 in August and $1,300 in July 2024.
“The irony of demented socialists paying for my dinner whilst I sit and do nothing is not lost on me,” he gloated.
Meanwhile, GB News worked itself into a frenzy over Green Party leader Zack Polanski wearing a white poppy at the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph. The white poppy is a long-established symbol of remembrance for all victims of war, both military and civilian, and of a commitment to peace.
Polanski, who in fact wore both a white and a red poppy, explained that the white poppy symbolises “looking ahead to the future and saying, we want a world of peace.”
Critics ridiculed GB News’ outrage. “If you zoom in real close, you’ll notice he’s wearing a red poppy too,” mocked one observer.
You’d think with all that’s going on in the world, a poppy pile on would be at the bottom of the pile, not the top.
Daily Mail issues apology to BBC presenter over fabricated quote
The Daily Mail has once more been forced into an apology because of inaccuracies in its ‘journalism’, this time having to apologise to a BBC presenter for attributing a quote to him that he never made.
At a time when the right-wing press is keen to stick the boot into the BBC after Trump threatened to sue the corporation after Panorama broadcast a misleading edit of a speech he made before the Capitol riots on January 6, 2020, the right-wing media have failed to put their own house in order.
On Saturday, the Mail apologised to BBC presenter Nick Robinson after running a piece earlier in the week in which it quoted Robinson as saying there was a culture of fear at the broadcaster. The story quoted him saying there was a ‘fear of making decisions and a fear of the truth’ in response to Donald Trump’s wrath.
However, the Mail has been made to make a grovelling apology after it was discovered that Robinson never made any such statement. The Mail’s apology stated: “A comment piece in Wednesday’s paper wrongly claimed that BBC Today presenter Nick Robinson had said: “What we’re seeing isn’t leadership-it’s fear. Fear of making decisions, fear of headlines, fear of the truth.” In fact, Mr Robinson made no such statement. We apologise for the error.”
Robinson went on to add on X: “The @DailyMail’s correction & apology for making up something I never said comes after a week in which it has run, by my last count, 6 headline pieces condemning me for being, amongst other things, “unhinged” & “semi-deranged”.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
The Daily Mail has once more been forced into an apology because of inaccuracies in its ‘journalism’, this time having to apologise to a BBC presenter for attributing a quote to him that he never made.
At a time when the right-wing press is keen to stick the boot into the BBC after Trump threatened to sue the corporation after Panorama broadcast a misleading edit of a speech he made before the Capitol riots on January 6, 2020, the right-wing media have failed to put their own house in order.
On Saturday, the Mail apologised to BBC presenter Nick Robinson after running a piece earlier in the week in which it quoted Robinson as saying there was a culture of fear at the broadcaster. The story quoted him saying there was a ‘fear of making decisions and a fear of the truth’ in response to Donald Trump’s wrath.
However, the Mail has been made to make a grovelling apology after it was discovered that Robinson never made any such statement. The Mail’s apology stated: “A comment piece in Wednesday’s paper wrongly claimed that BBC Today presenter Nick Robinson had said: “What we’re seeing isn’t leadership-it’s fear. Fear of making decisions, fear of headlines, fear of the truth.” In fact, Mr Robinson made no such statement. We apologise for the error.”
Robinson went on to add on X: “The @DailyMail’s correction & apology for making up something I never said comes after a week in which it has run, by my last count, 6 headline pieces condemning me for being, amongst other things, “unhinged” & “semi-deranged”.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
Liz Truss slammed for suggesting Trump should destroy the BBC
'There's patriotism for you.'
Disgraced former Prime Minister Liz Truss has sunk even lower, as she cheered on Donald Trump’s attacks on the BBC and called for the President to destroy the corporation, leading to her being criticised for her fake patriotism.
Truss, whose premiership ended in disaster, and who was booted out of office after just 49 days, making her Britain’s shortest ever serving Prime Minister, has continued to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons since her exit. She has sought to blame the deep state for her disastrous time in office, while also pushing far-right narratives and conspiracy theories.
In the latest incident, Truss told Fox News that a lot of Brits are “cheering on” the US president, who has said he wants to sue the BBC for up to $5 billion after Panorama broadcast a misleading edit of a speech he made before the Capitol riots on January 6, 2020.
The BBC has apologised with two of its top figures, including the director-general, resigning amid concerns about impartiality.
Truss accused the BBC of peddling ‘fake news’ and of being ‘left leaning’, during a rambling speech on Fox.
She said: “There is a lot of excitement amongst Conservatives in Britain at the moment that President Trump is actually taking the BBC on.”
She claimed an apology from the BBC would not be enough and went on to add: “I believe the organisation needs to be defunded, and as well as suing the BBC, I think it would be fantastic if President Trump were to encourage stopping the British taxpayer funding what is fake news that is damaging Britain’s reputation.
“The BBC used to be the paragon of journalism across the world. It was respected. It’s now become a laughing stock and it needs to be put out of its misery.”
Her comments were condemned, with journalist and commentator Mehdi Hasan stating: “Think about how insane this is: not just a supposedly patriotic Conservative ex-British prime minister going on a foreign TV channel to encourage a foreign government to sue the BBC but also claiming that it costs the taxpayer money while calling for the taxpayer to pay Trump $$!”
Historian William Dalrymple posted on X: “Liz Truss, our worst & shortest lived PM, and the only living person who makes Boris Johnson look like a statesman, now wants Trump to destroy the BBC… There’s patriotism for you.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
Today
'There's patriotism for you.'
Disgraced former Prime Minister Liz Truss has sunk even lower, as she cheered on Donald Trump’s attacks on the BBC and called for the President to destroy the corporation, leading to her being criticised for her fake patriotism.
Truss, whose premiership ended in disaster, and who was booted out of office after just 49 days, making her Britain’s shortest ever serving Prime Minister, has continued to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons since her exit. She has sought to blame the deep state for her disastrous time in office, while also pushing far-right narratives and conspiracy theories.
In the latest incident, Truss told Fox News that a lot of Brits are “cheering on” the US president, who has said he wants to sue the BBC for up to $5 billion after Panorama broadcast a misleading edit of a speech he made before the Capitol riots on January 6, 2020.
The BBC has apologised with two of its top figures, including the director-general, resigning amid concerns about impartiality.
Truss accused the BBC of peddling ‘fake news’ and of being ‘left leaning’, during a rambling speech on Fox.
She said: “There is a lot of excitement amongst Conservatives in Britain at the moment that President Trump is actually taking the BBC on.”
She claimed an apology from the BBC would not be enough and went on to add: “I believe the organisation needs to be defunded, and as well as suing the BBC, I think it would be fantastic if President Trump were to encourage stopping the British taxpayer funding what is fake news that is damaging Britain’s reputation.
“The BBC used to be the paragon of journalism across the world. It was respected. It’s now become a laughing stock and it needs to be put out of its misery.”
Her comments were condemned, with journalist and commentator Mehdi Hasan stating: “Think about how insane this is: not just a supposedly patriotic Conservative ex-British prime minister going on a foreign TV channel to encourage a foreign government to sue the BBC but also claiming that it costs the taxpayer money while calling for the taxpayer to pay Trump $$!”
Historian William Dalrymple posted on X: “Liz Truss, our worst & shortest lived PM, and the only living person who makes Boris Johnson look like a statesman, now wants Trump to destroy the BBC… There’s patriotism for you.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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