"The name gives the keyword," revealed Andrew Neil on Sunday evening at the start of the new, conservative, commercial news channel GB News, which, like Boris Johnson and the Brexit campaign, emphatically opposes the metropolitan elite.
With the first of several lashes against his former employer, the BBC, Neil, chairman of GB News, declared in a kind of address to the nation that the broadcaster knew what the "B" in its name stood for.
The former adlatus of Rupert Murdoch and current chairman of the conservative weekly Spectator joined the BBC's critics, who claim that the public broadcaster's abbreviated name means "Biased Broadcasting Corporation".
Gina Thomas
Features correspondent based in London.
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Neil's reference to the informative value of the letter B was redundant. The logo borrowed from the Union Jack and the constant presence of the national colors red, blue and white underscore the message that this new venture, in contrast to the BBC, which is perceived as defeatist, “is proud to be British”. For an hour, Neil presented the concept and the most important presenters, which the channel, which broadcasts daily from 6 a.m. to midnight, recruited from the BBC, the news provider ITN, the press and Sky News, when it was launched thirty-five years ago Neil, then editor-in-chief of Murdoch's Sunday Times, also participated. GB News does not want to be another “echo room of the capital city mentality” that already dominates large parts of the media, but rather the prevailing discourse with “character,Critically question flair, attitude and opinion. The station is aimed at those in the remote regions beyond the "media bubble of Westminster" whose concerns would be overlooked. "We are unabashedly on the side of the unheard," proclaimed entrepreneur Michelle Dewberry, once winner of the reality show "The Apprentice" and candidate for the Brexit party in the 2017 general election. Now she is one of the faces of GB News, who, according to Neil, attend to the concerns of the general population, not the snooty elite, the privileged, or "ahistorical students at Oxford.""We are unabashedly on the side of the unheard," proclaimed entrepreneur Michelle Dewberry, once winner of the reality show "The Apprentice" and candidate for the Brexit party in the 2017 general election. Now she is one of the faces of GB News, who, according to Neil, attend to the concerns of the general population, not the snooty elite, the privileged, or "ahistorical students at Oxford.""We are unabashedly on the side of the unheard," proclaimed entrepreneur Michelle Dewberry, once winner of the reality show "The Apprentice" and candidate for the Brexit party in the 2017 general election. Now she is one of the faces of GB News, who, according to Neil, attend to the concerns of the general population, not the snooty elite, the privileged, or "ahistorical students at Oxford."
“Wokeness” and “Cancel Culture” are high on the UK news agenda. The participants of the evening show, hosted by former Sun columnist Dan Wootton, are asked daily to nominate a national depee. In the first broadcast, the questionable honor fell to Labor politician Angela Rayner for a tweet accusing football fans of racism who booed when the UK national team knelt in symbolic solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Surveys have found that, especially now that the BBC is under attack, less left-wing television coverage is in demand. Rupert Murdoch also had plans for a new station. For a while he is said to have even toyed with the idea of participating in GB News. But the British arm of his company came to the conclusion that a linear news channel was not profitable. GB News' £ 60 million seed capital comes largely from American media company Discovery, Dubai-based investment firm Legatum and investor Paul Marshall, who also supported the Brexit campaign. The annual cost of the advertising-funded station is estimated at £ 25 million. Neil is keen to statethat GB News is not a new edition of Murdoch's broadcaster Fox News, which is often accused of spreading fake news. The 140 employees should have contractually committed to uphold the highest journalistic standards.
The ticker reports the latest developments at the bottom of the screen, but GB News does not see itself as a non-stop news channel. The channel delivers more of a tabloid-style non-stop talk show. In its debut, which was hampered by technical problems, the station reached 164,000 viewers, 107,000 more than Sky News and 32,000 more than BBC News. It's still too early to say if the BBC will regret the day it lost Andrew Neil, one of its best presenters. The populist tone of GB News, however, makes one aware of what the BBC has to offer.