Two ‘boldly different’ new contenders for our attention will soon hit millions of screens. Can
BBC impartiality survive the assault?
After taking the oath of office last Wednesday,
Joe Biden felt the need to condemn an increasingly weaponised field of national conflict: broadcast news. Encouraging his fellow Americans to focus on the distant mirage of unity in his inaugural address, the new president warned against a “retreat into competing factions”, and distrust of those who “don’t get their news from the same sources you do”.
Now
Britain is on the brink of a similarly oppositional era of television news coverage. Two services, both designed as challenges to the cosy status quo, are to be launched upon a largely unsuspecting viewing public later this spring. Among star presenters rumoured to be lined up to sit alongside broadcaster Andrew Neil on GB News, where he will be the main host, are LBC’s Nick
Ferrari, Rachel Johnson, the prime minister’s sister, as well as talkRadio’s lockdown sceptic Julia Hartley-Brewer. Meanwhile a rival offering from Rupert Murdoch’s News
UK stable could well boast Piers Morgan and Alan Sugar.