New RAJAR figures for the second quarter of the year make happy reading for GB News. Their upwards trajectory shows no sign of stopping…
GB News Radio, which is just a simulcast of GB News TV, has now overtaken Times Radio on weekly reach for the first time. GB’s year-on-year growth has reached a whopping 63% and is 14% higher than last quarter…
Last quarter GB News overtook LBC London and is continuing full steam ahead. TalkRadio, the last surviving linear branch of YouTube-ified TalkTV, sees its reach go down 9% from last quarter and 5% from last year. You either have momentum, or you don’t..
As Huw Edwards pleads guilty to child sex charges, the mind-boggling hypocrisy of the well-paid liberal podcastariat has already been well noted. The well-heeled and right-on steamed in to defend their centrist buddy – but Edwards has today admitted to three counts of making indecent images of children…
Anti-press Hacked Off, which describes itself as a ‘campaign for a free and accountable press‘, also played a key role mixing the cards and sending up chaff on the Huw Edwards scandal – it ran a relentless campaign criticising the original reports which appeared in The Sun, seeking to discredit the story. In July last year Hacked Off released a statement from its director Nathan Sparkes which read:
“A man has been hospitalised, his family has been destroyed, a young person has seen their drug addiction issue and family estrangement splashed across the newspapers for the world to pick over. Whatever further emerges in this story, and if The Sun has further public interest justifications or evidence of genuine wrongdoing they are hiding it very well, this episode demonstrates the extraordinary power the press has inflict harm against people, and underlines the urgent need for an independent system of regulation as recommended in the Leveson Report”.
Hacked Off went onto say elsewhere that The Sun:
“Failed to follow very basic journalistic standards in pursuit of this story”.
The group prayed in aid the support of Peter Tatchell, who chimed in:
“The presumption of innocence until proven guilty has been thrown out the window… Unless a criminal offence has been committed or the young person has complained, it is a private matter and no one else’s business… [The Sun] is aghast that a BBC presenter allegedly paid a young man thousands of pounds for allegedly sexually explicit photos. But for decades that newspaper made millions in profits publishing sexually explicit photos of young women on page three.”
The BBC then quoted Hacked Off in a piece critical of The Sun‘s reporting:
“Jacqui Hames, a board member of press campaign group Hacked Off, said a “suggestion of criminality… screamed out” at readers day after day.”
Set that against Edwards’s own admissions in court. With the luvvie-backed group lobbying Starmer’s government hard for Leveson 2, this should weaken their argument. Press regulation campaigners are so often really just anti-press…
There’s more than a little outrage this morning as Sky News and the BBC deploy their usual questionable reporting on killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. In Sky correspondent Alex Crawford’s analysis she said he was “a very moderate leader“. Moderate in an antisemitic Islamofascist kind of way presumably…
The BBC calls now-dead Haniyeh “moderate and pragmatic” while Reuters describes Haniyeh’s “tough talking“. The thousands of victims of Hamas were not on the receiving end of moderate pragmatism…
Huw Edwards pleaded guilty to three accounts of making indecent images of children. The BBC presenter admitted having 41 indecent images of children, seven of which were category A images, the most serious classification of indecent images defined in UK law as involving penetrative sexual activity. He will be sentenced on 16th September. Guido reminds co-conspirators of those who leapt to his defence when it first came out. Where are his outriders now…
UPDATE: The BBC releases a statement:
“The BBC is shocked to hear the details which have emerged in court today. There can be no place for such abhorrent behaviour and our thoughts are with all those affected.
The police have confirmed that the charges are not connected to the original complaint raised with the BBC in the summer of 2023, nevertheless in the interests of transparency we think it important to set out some points about events of the last year.
In November 2023, whilst Mr Edwards was suspended, the BBC as his employer at the time was made aware in confidence that he had been arrested on suspicion of serious offences and released on bail whilst the police continued their investigation. At the time, no charges had been brought against Mr Edwards and the BBC had also been made aware of significant risk to his health.
]Today we have learnt of the conclusion of the police process in the details as presented to the court. If at any point during the period Mr Edwards was employed by the BBC he had been charged, the BBC had determined it would act immediately to dismiss him. In the end, at the point of charge he was no longer an employee of the BBC.
During this period, in the usual way, the BBC has kept its corporate management of these issues separate from its independent editorial functions.
We want to reiterate our shock at Mr Edwards’ actions and our thoughts remain with all those affected.”
Yesterday was a tough today for the hardline centrist hacks who rushed to Huw Edwards’ defence after allegations he paid a child for indecent images surfaced. As the Metropolitan Police confirmed BBC presenter Huw Edwards was charged with three accounts of making explicit photos, the lefty pundits look rather silly for slamming The Sun for surfacing the scandal and running to Huw’s defence. Guido has browsed through the archives of these supposed ‘hommes serieux’ who will be more than a little red-faced…
The questions for The Sun just got bigger still.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) July 12, 2023
Former Editor of The Sun, David Yelland rushed to attack the paper, posting this a few hours after Huw’s wife named him as the presenter embroiled in scandal:
I wish @thehuwedwards well. The Sun inflicted terror on Huw despite no evidence of any criminal offence. This is no longer a BBC crisis, it is a crisis for the paper. Huw’s privacy must now be respected. Social media also needs speedy reform.
— David Yelland (@davidyelland) July 12, 2023
Emily Maitlis also blasted the “distasteful” BBC coverage of further allegations coming to light, questioning on The News Agents whether journalism had gone “too far” while “this poor man was in hospital, and that was absolutely appalling, and yet obviously there will be journalists here saying “but that doesn’t stop us doing our work”. Let’s not forget that the child’s mother initially approached the BBC to report the disturbing situation and she was met with silence…
Meanwhile, Jon Sopel was quick to wish Huw well:
This is an awful and shocking episode, where there was no criminality, but perhaps a complicated private life. That doesn’t feel very private now. I hope that will give some cause to reflect. They really need to. I wish @thehuwedwards well. pic.twitter.com/H3rN3bhE1U
— Jon Sopel (@jonsopel) July 12, 2023
Last but not least, Corbynite luvvie Owen Jones posted a moving defence that hasn’t aged well:
The Sun is a disgusting rag and they have to pay for what they’ve done to Huw Edwards.
They tried to destroy someone’s life with false claims of illegality involving a minor.
We know now there was no criminality, and The Sun have driven a vulnerable man into medical care.
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) July 12, 2023
They’re not leaping to his aid anymore…
Former BBC presenter Huw Edwards has been charged with three counts of making indecent images of children on WhatsApp. The Metropolitan Police released the following statement:
“The offences, which are alleged to have taken place between December 2020 and April 2022, relate to images shared on a WhatsApp chat. Edwards was arrested on 8 November 2023. He was charged on Wednesday, 26 June following authorisation from the Crown Prosecution Service. He has been bailed to appear at Westminster magistrates’ court on Wednesday, 31 July. Media and the public are strongly reminded that this is an active case. Nothing should be published, including on social media, which could prejudice future court proceedings.”
Huw still managed to rake in a whopping £480,000 (a 10% pay rise) from the BBC last year – despite not doing much work since he was outed as the presenter facing allegations of paying for explicit pictures last July. All very ugly for the BBC…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”
