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.
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