A coordinated Channel 4 / Guardian ‘hit job’ on the new Prevent anti-radicalisation scheme chairman, William Shawcross, spectacularly backfired after it emerged it has the backing of scores of extremists.

In a letter to The Guardian, hundreds of co-signatories have called into question the credibility of the Government’s Prevent review. Guido thinks it’s the credibility of hacks behind this hatchet job that should be under the spotlight. Even a cursory search by Guido suggests some of the names on the list have dodgy form. Signatories include include those who: praise or defended terrorist groups al-Qaeda and Hamas; call for jihad or praise martyrdom; are members of Islamist lobbying groups, including those linked to the Muslim Brotherhood; advocate for an Islamic caliphate; promote the blood libel and call for the destruction of Israel or disseminate antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Guido recognised some of the names on the list of signatories, which is a roll-call of homophobes, terrorist apologists, supporters of armed jihad and radical Islamists. This hit-job on Shawcross is also getting top-billing on Channel 4 News, OFCOM have never tackled the bias of that broadcaster. Roll on privatisation of Channel 4…

Some of the extremist signatories below;

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Clearly this leader of an “‘independent police advisory group” hasn’t personally met a history book either…

Infotainment has its place, Guido is a big fan of presenting information in the most entertaining way possible. If you just view Piers Morgan as an infotainer, he’s clearly excellent at what he does, there comes however a point when the entertainment becomes counter-productive. When thousands are dying the kind of hysterical shouty television with which Piers specialises in entertaining us, is just no longer so funny. Even if it is good for his ratings…

At the more serious end of broadcasting, Channel 4 News’ Alex Thomson last night was on a quest for culpability. His crass question at the Downing Street briefing basically accused Hancock and his advisers of choosing to kill off old people to prioritise protecting the young. Andrew Neil, who knows a thing or two about questioning politicians, was pointedly critical of the ridiculous questions at the government press conference:

Take the one which effectively asked — is the government letting people in care homes die so it can prioritise saving younger people in hospitals? First, the premise is absurd. Second, what kind of answer do you expect? “Absolutely, old bean. It’s our policy to kill old people so that the young can live. Have a badge.” Really? Put aside the morality for a second. Why would this government actively seek to kill those who vote for it? Madness.

Earlier in the week, Channel 4 News’ reporter repeatedly demanded from Priti Patel an apology. This type of performance isn’t holding power to account or about purely eliciting information. It is gotcha journalism and because journalists at the press conferences are asking their questions through the prism of establishing political culpability, they are getting defensive responses. It would be better to leave that to the opposition in parliament and leave the made-for-social-media infotainment to Piers. It might also arrest the dramatic drop in public confidence in the news media…

The Reuters Institute has a piece out making supportive noises about the BBC; one bit of the research caught Guido’s eye. The Oxford University academics did a survey which asked respondents to self-identify politically, then rate various news sources as trustworthy. What was most striking was the width of the range of opinion about Channel 4 News’ trustworthiness depending on your political persuasion. Those on the right rated it the least trustworthy and those on the left rated it the most trustworthy. This strongly suggests that there is an objective basis for believing the obvious, it is the most left-biased TV news show in Britain…

The same research suggests that Tories trust ITV news more than even The Telegraph and least trust The Canary and Buzzfeed. Lefties most trust Channel 4 News followed by The Guardian and least trust the Daily Mail and The Sun. This once again demonstrates that readers like their prejudices confirmed (“media homophily”). Proving the truth of the axiom that people like people like themselves…

At the Royal Television Society awards last night Emily Maitlis and Newsnight were deservedly double award winners with Scoop of the Year and Presenter of the Year for the game changing Prince Andrew interview. Congratulations.

In a move more redolent of a nursery school’s sports day the luvvies judges gave all the television political teams an award. This follows on from the Booker Prize judges splitting the prize money with all the shortlisted authors. What is the point of woke judges not making judgements?