It might seem the last thing we need, but if the channel avoids
fake news we can live with it – it may not even be that popular
GB News launches soon with Andrew Neil as its head and, for that matter, face. Reports suggest that journalists being sought out to staff the channel have been told it will be “positioned to the right of the BBC” – though Neil himself has said merely that it will serve the “vast number of
British people who feel underserved and unheard”, arguing elsewhere that “the direction of news debate in
Britain is increasingly woke and out of touch with the majority of its people”.
It is neither premature nor unduly biased to think it’s the last thing our media environment needs. Neil has described his aim as to do “what the US channels do – programming built around strong presenters which becomes an appointment to view”. It’s difficult not to think in this context of
Fox News, which has had a toxic effect on US politics, steadfastly undermining not so much the progressive worldview as the validity, indeed the very existence, of truth.