As Guido revealed yesterday, Ofcom rejected the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on biological sex and ordered broadcasters to give airtime to the claim biological men are women when discussing trans. Now Guido has seen the correspondence showing Ofcom initially tried to do so in secret…
In letters between the regulator and GB News, Ofcom said it did not accept the judgement meant the debate is ‘settled’. Ofcom marked its letter ‘Confidential’, not once, but three times across the page…
GB News challenged the decision to make the letter private, stating it should be made public due to the importance of its content and Ofcom’s duty to make their views relating to their Code available to those they regulate. Ofcom backed down. The regulator claimed the inclusion of ‘confidential’ was ‘unintended’ and they don’t consider their position to be confidential after all. When the regulator becomes the regulated…
Pro-censorship campaigners Stop Funding Hate have teamed up the fox beaters at the Good Law Project for their latest swing-and-a-miss at GB News. It’s an embarrassing one…
The pair joined ranks and rallied their loony troops for a protest against Burberry – and what did the fashion brand do? Advertised on the People’s Channel…
Alas, only five loyal activists turned up. Two seemed to have dropped into the costume shop on the way and showed up at the store wearing plastic helmets. Tin foil one would have been more appropriate…
Maugham’s group, the Good Law Project, then took to X to ask its militant following to tag Burberry in the post’s comments in a last ditch bid to garner the clothing brand’s attention.Guido has taken a look for you, and at present of the hundred-plus comments, a grand total of four have heeded their groups’ call to bleat at Burberry. The others rallying in support of Burberry’s decision to join those backing the now fourth largest media outlet in the UK…
Remember how the left sneered when GB News was first announced, ridiculing the station on launch? Well, the Reuters Institute Digital News Report has just concluded GB News has risen to become the UK’s fourth biggest news media outlet on TV and radio. That ranks above liberal media dinosaurs Channel Four News, Channel Five News and CNN, oops…
Interestingly, the People’s Channel was found to be a more trusted source than both the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror newspaper. Commenting on the report, Mick Booker, GB News’ Editorial Director, said: “This report is a must read for anyone interested in how the consumption of news is changing across the globe… As Reuters’ report lays bare, our unstoppable growth is continuing, and soaring numbers of people are turning to the People’s Channel because they value the fearless journalism our team relentlessly provides.”
In a sign of what is to come, the report also found social media is the main news source in major markets like the US and Australia. Coming to the UK very soon, watch this space…
Yesterday’s Sunday Times published a story about GB News accusing Ofcom of bias in a letter the broadcaster sent to the regulator. The report was a little undercooked, Guido has had full sight of that letter…
In the missive lawyers offered a devastating judgement on Ofcom’s proposals. One key point passed over lightly in the Sunday Times piece was that Ofcom appear to have failed to follow their own consultation principles, which state “where possible, we will hold informal talks with people and organisations before announcing a big consultation…if we do not have enough time to do this, we will hold an open meeting to explain our proposal, shortly after announcing the consultation.” The people’s channel say they have not been invited for any informal talks or to an open meeting, and demanded that “Ofcom should withdraw the consultation and, if it still wishes to investigate whether a change of the rules is necessary, publish a consultation that follows the correct process.” Shots fired…
The letter also offered a withering attack on the unworkable nature of the proposals – arguing that the High Court judgement offered certainty, something these proposals would destroy by making it “necessary for broadcasters to determine whether each and every word spoken on air is news content or not” as Ofcom offer no definition. In a slap down to the regulator, GB News quoted Ofcom executive Cristina Nicolotti Squires’ words back at her: “I am not convinced that having a very clear definition is possible. What is news? News is lots of different things to all sorts of people.” If Ofcom does not know, how are broadcasters supposed to know?
And it’s not just GB News who feel this way. Over the weekend, ex-Ofcom broadcast chief Stewart Purvis wrote about these proposals, “Ofcom has dug itself into another regulatory hole. You do wonder who at Ofcom could have signed this off without realising the implications.” Ouch…
A dour response from Jonathan Reynolds on GB News this morning as the business and trade secretary only gives the EU-UK deal an eight out of ten score:
“Well look this is a solid eight I’m not the kind of man to get hyperbolic about these things but look, this is a good deal for borders, for bills, for
security in the UK and for jobs.”
He doesn’t sound too convinced. EU walking away laughing…
As Ofcom announced its eye-catching new consultation into the use of politicians as TV presenters, Guido suspects one former Labour Cabinet Minister (turned GMB anchor), Ed Balls, slept soundly. Tucked up next to the, uhh, Home Secretary…
Ofcom chose not to investigate Ed’s soft-ball(s) interview with his wife back in August of last year, despite receiving a whopping 16,000 complaints from members of the public. The regulator thought that a former Labour minister interviewing his wife – a serving Labour Home Secretary – was not a breach of impartiality…
As Ofcom has a statutory obligation to have due regard to maintaining “proportionate and consistent” regulatory activities, Guido has taken a look at programmes the regulator did deem worthy of investigation for lack of impartiality:
The pressure on Ofcom’s two-tier approach is only mounting. No wonder Brits are turning to different formats..
Badenoch said at her speech on Monday morning: “We are absolutely ready to fight a general election. We saw the results in Aberdeen South: 50% of the vote. Because we can unite the country… It’s about uniting the country, for God’s sake, behind a centre-right agenda.”