GB News

[London Lite]

Are there any other mainstream broadcasters who would hire a presenter with very little experience of actual presenting, with such little rehearsal time? Oakeshott herself said she only had 30 mins before going on air last Friday.

[Newsroom]

I just can't comprehend how we are at 94 pages of discussion over that is essentially a channel going to the grave. I fully respect those who love the channel, but it's way outweighed by those who think it's a BBC test card on acid. It's a thread that is clearly loved, but having looked through it all - it's negative and nothing but scathing at its best.

It's also very boring as nobody is watching.

[Jon]

It's also very boring as nobody is watching.

So you write a paragraph moaning about people slagging it off, then you end the post by slagging it off.

[Newsroom]

It's also very boring as nobody is watching.

So you write a paragraph moaning about people slagging it off, then you end the post by slagging it off.

Correct! I mean, it's factual. Not me slagging it off. I'd be typing a thesis if you wanted that as to the failures of the Channel. BUT, I'm a little busy and we all have better things to do.

[Brekkie]

What actually annoys me is the ticker having Robert Webb's exit from Strictly. Back in the day when you had the likes of Opportunity Knocks getting 20m viewers with a population of 55m, the talent shows weren't treated as TV news' stories.

In defence of all the media outlets covering that story (and most are) - it's not a run of the mill "person x was voted off Strictly Come Dancing" "celebrity gossip" type story, this is a person who is generally pretty well known, over many years, who has been recovering from heart surgery and has found out that a dancing competition was too much for him given his condition. It's a genuine public interest story, and not so much about Strictly Come Dancing per se.

I would say that even if one hasn't heard of Robert Webb, the specifics of the story and the pretty candid and honest statement he put out, are sufficient to be deemed newsworthy to some degree.

It's a London "media elite" story, the sort of thing they cursed other outlets for covering and said they'd be avoiding in favour of stories real people cared about.


In other news GB News will be part of new Australian news streaming service Flash.

https://tvtonight.com.au/2021/10/flash-s...-news.html

[sjhoward]

this is a person who is generally pretty well known, over many years, who has been recovering from heart surgery and has found out that a dancing competition was too much for him given his condition. It's a genuine public interest story, and not so much about Strictly Come Dancing per se.

I think you are possibly confusing “public interest” with “interesting to the public”.

[TMD_24]

Sound is all over the place on Farage's first show on the road.

[Scrotnig]

this is a person who is generally pretty well known, over many years, who has been recovering from heart surgery and has found out that a dancing competition was too much for him given his condition. It's a genuine public interest story, and not so much about Strictly Come Dancing per se.

I think you are possibly confusing “public interest” with “interesting to the public”.

A fair comment, yes that's a better description.

[Scrotnig]

nd is all over the place on Farage's first sho

Looks like they quickly went to a break to fix it, when they came back they went straight to a recorded piece from a reporter.
When Farage reappeared it seemed to be fixed and he did comment on it.

Where they are struggling is the Question Time-style "questions from the audience", as they seem to have no way to pick up the audience's voices. One bloke was actually handed a mic and was speaking into it but still nothing.

However I think this type of show is something they should definitely be doing and I'm sure these technical issues will improve.
I'd like to see this done once a week. It adds something interesting if they 'tour the country'.

[aaron_scotland]

Sound is all over the place on Farage's first show on the road.

His audience is umm... Diverse.

[Jon]

To be fair that is a male voice choir, who performed on the show. But then again they did seem to make up most of the audience. But then how diverse do you expect what I assume is a working mans club in Port Talbot to be?

[Matrix]

To be fair that is a male voice choir, who performed on the show. But then again they did seem to make up most of the audience. But then how diverse do you expect what I assume is a working mans club in Port Talbot to be?

To be fair, I don’t think that’s the point. As a broadcaster, the duty is to reflect voices — not just those you can find in a pub. Imagine if a BBC report, or the audience for Question Time, were picked like that. There would be uproar, and rightly so. These are basic journalistic duties but there again, I’d hardly call this outfit journalist - despite its name.

[London Lite]

If they marketed the channel as an opinion led channel like talkRADIO, I doubt they'd get half the issues they have currently with their current branding.

This is why News UK have sensibly decided to use the Talk brand for their new tv channel.

[johnnyboy]

To be fair that is a male voice choir, who performed on the show. But then again they did seem to make up most of the audience. But then how diverse do you expect what I assume is a working mans club in Port Talbot to be?

To be fair, I don’t think that’s the point. As a broadcaster, the duty is to reflect voices — not just those you can find in a pub. Imagine if a BBC report, or the audience for Question Time, were picked like that. There would be uproar, and rightly so. These are basic journalistic duties but there again, I’d hardly call this outfit journalist - despite its name.

To be fair, it is exactly the point. It would be disingenuous to bus in a load of people not from Port Talbot and unlikely to visit a Port Talbot WMC just for the sake of "diversity".

The voices of those visiting working mens' clubs in Port Talbot are just as valid as the voices of those visiting a wine bar in Shoreditch (very likely to be diverse) or the brilliant (almost exclusively white female) workers in a womens' refuge in Aberdeen.

The GB News audience was reflective of a certain part of the country.

I fully support diversity but I think those people who discount the views of any audience because it's not "diverse" enough are intellectual frauds.

[Matrix]

To be fair that is a male voice choir, who performed on the show. But then again they did seem to make up most of the audience. But then how diverse do you expect what I assume is a working mans club in Port Talbot to be?

To be fair, I don’t think that’s the point. As a broadcaster, the duty is to reflect voices — not just those you can find in a pub. Imagine if a BBC report, or the audience for Question Time, were picked like that. There would be uproar, and rightly so. These are basic journalistic duties but there again, I’d hardly call this outfit journalist - despite its name.

To be fair, it is exactly the point. It would be disingenuous to bus in a load of people not from Port Talbot and unlikely to visit a Port Talbot WMC just for the sake of "diversity".

The voices of those visiting working mens' clubs in Port Talbot are just as valid as the voices of those visiting a wine bar in Shoreditch (very likely to be diverse) or the brilliant (almost exclusively white female) workers in a womens' refuge in Aberdeen.

The GB News audience was reflective of a certain part of the country.

I fully support diversity but I think those people who discount the views of any audience because it's not "diverse" enough are intellectual frauds.

I don’t think anyone is discounting views, quite the opposite. What I was calling out was a basic lack of journalistic rubric: all sides get prominent hearing. Slapping yourself down in a pub and saying that’s representative of Port Talbot is well, at best, missing the rest of the residents…

It’s a difficult balancing act, and you can never really achieve a fully representative standard, but what amazes me about GB ‘News’ is that is doesn’t even seem to try.

Anyway, we could probably go around the pubs on this - so to speak - so I’ll just say that we probably have a difference of opinion here and thank you for your views.