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@docrussjackson
Jan 7, 2023 • 20 tweets • 11 min read • Read on X
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#THREAD on GB "News", mainly courtesy of @PrivateEyeNews.

The polarising, increasingly unhinged, & dangerously irresponsible multimillionaire hedge-funder funded GB "News" has become a rich breeding ground for harmful conspiracy theories, effectively becoming the UK's Fox News.
The channel was only founded in 2021 amid much-regretted promises from then frontman Andrew Neill that it would not become a "British Fox News" but has slid deep into #misinformation, #disinformation, & pure #propaganda, often about the COVID pandemic.
In one recent show, presenter Patrick Christys praised a largely discredited new book which claims Covid was genetically engineered and leaked on purpose, with help from US chief national scientific adviser Anthony Fauci and cover-ups by UK scientists.
The book, by one Andrew Huff, has been treated sceptically by other media outlets, but Christys and guest Dominique Samuels claimed it proved that so- called Covid conspiracists were "completely vindicated" on a host of issues.

ecohealthalliance.org/2022/12/ecohea…
Dan Wootton interviewed 'online personality' Andrew Tate, who was allowed to refer to an "imaginary pandemic" and deny that hospitals had been overrun without any challenge. (Tate has been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group.)
Off-air & away from @Ofcom regulation, presenters share absurd conspiracies. Samuels tweeted praise for conspiracy theory documentary Died Suddenly, which falsely alleges the Covid vaccine was created by the global elite to kill people & depopulate earth.
Meanwhile, on his personal podcast, GB "News" presenter Mark Steyn said the slowing of the birth rate of "#Aryans", who built "western civilisation", had been accelerated by Covid vaccines. He openly celebrated the fact that @Ofcom does not regulate his personal show.
In 2018, Sky News Australia sparked outcry after it broadcast an interview with a far-right nationalist extremist who has expressed his admiration for #Hitler: then Sky News Australia CEO Angelos Frangopoulos said “It was an error of judgment". Frangopoulos is now CEO of #GBNews.
Another purveyor of wacky Covid opinions is Nick Dixon, a host of GB News's paper review & presenter of the Daily Sceptic podcast, which grew out of a Lockdown Sceptics website founded by Toby Young.

Online, Dixon praises unvaccinated people, calling them "pure bloods".
It's not only the pandemic where those given voice & prominence by GB "News" veer towards the unhinged.

Calvin Robinson, who dresses in an old-fashioned clergy uniform despite the CofE having declined to ordain him, shared an unfounded theory about Ukraine war.
Robinson makes the unfounded claim that Ukraine war money is actually a money-laundering operation for US aid to be donated to the Democratic party via the use of cryptocurrency.
And during recent immigration debates, Calvin Robinson, who is black, repeatedly praised the views of Enoch "Rivers of Blood" Powell, tweeting that "Powell provided an important contribution to the conversation" and changing his background image to a picture of the politician.
Indeed, Robinson - now a regular on Fox "News" where he self-identifies as "Anglican Deacon", "Father" Calvin Robinson - is quite happy to use his @Twitter account as an unpleasant extension of his GB "News" role.

He's also 'Strategy Adviser' to Lawrence Fox's Reclaim Party.
On a recent episode of his Sunday GB "News" programme Common Sense Crusade, Michael Coren, a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, defended "buffer zones" around abortion clinics to stop anti-abortion activists upsetting people using the services.

newstatesman.com/quickfire/2022…
Coren was promised by producers there would be "civility & friendly disagreement" both on & off air.
However, entirely predictably, host Calvin Robinson took to Twitter to accuse Coren of "twisting scripture" and being "pro- abortion and anti-prayer".
Calvin Robinson told his followers that what Coren had said was "wicked... Judgement awaits". Coren predictably received a slew of what he described as "angry, venomous and abusive" messages as a result.

Robinson also a senior fellow at Policy Exchange.

On-air #misinformation from GB "News" is also
having real world influence.

A recent spate of reports falsely representing that a traffic-calming measure in Oxfordshire was a "climate lockdown" went viral and resulted in abuse & death threats being directed at council staff.
Broadcast regulator @Ofcom does regulate a little: there are two active investigations against GB "News", both against Steyn.

Last spring he wrongly said that having additional Covid vaccines was killing people & slammed a "media silence" on the issue.

pressgazette.co.uk/news/ofcom-gb-…
In October Steyn's guest, the seldom accurate Naomi Wolf, claimed women were being harmed by Covid vaccines.

But @Ofcom is complaints-based, & as most viewers in the GB "News" echo chamber are unlikely to complain, much of its output goes unmonitored.

Even when we do complain to @Ofcom about GB "News", it rarely seems to have any effect.

However, the more of us complain, the more likely they are to stop shamelessly normalising far-right speakers, far-right conspiracy theories, & far-right rhetoric. 🙏

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More from @docrussjackson

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Dec 16
#THREAD

Shit-stirring hypocritical bigoted playground bullies were once shunned by society, but now they can become MPs.

Is Reform UK's Lee Anderson, who exploits ordinary people with his infantile divisive populism, the thickest & most hypocritical bigot ever to become an MP? Image
#30pLee is on his third party in six years.

He was elected as a Labour councillor in 2015 & suspended by the local branch of the Labour Party in 2018 after receiving a community-protection warning by the council for using boulders to block members of the Traveller community. Image
#30pLee resigned from Labour in 2018 & was elected as a Tory councillor on Mansfield District Council in 2019. He was selected as the Conservative candidate for Ashfield in 2019, and was elected as a Tory MP.

He's long been associated with the far-right.

Read 45 tweets
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Dec 14
#THREAD

The Chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, Richard Cooke, has been suspended after he branded racism allegations as "nonsense" on social media after a former chief inspector alleged racism & homophobia were rife within the force.

itv.com/news/central/2…
Policing is hard. The Police Federation of England and Wales is the statutory staff association for police constables, sergeants, inspectors, chief inspectors & special constables in the 43 territorial police forces in England & Wales. Cooke is Chair of the West Midlands branch.
Under UK labour law, the police are prohibited from joining ordinary trade unions to defend pay and working conditions, by the Police Act 1996, because of the view that a police strike would pose an exceptional public safety risk.

Cooke is a controversial figure. Image
Read 9 tweets
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Dec 11
🧵Trump has assigned Musk a chilling task: To dismantle & destroy large parts of the federal government. Musk wants us to call this project by a humorous & innocent-sounding name: the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE).

#Framing is important.

theframelab.org/destruction-of…
First, Musk's project is not an official Dept, so it's not factual to call it one.

Second, the goal of Musk's project is destruction, not "efficiency." Efficiency is when you make something work better. Musk clearly seeks to eliminate, not improve, large parts of government. Image
Finally, Musk has named his project after a meme, DOGE, a crypto scam named for a Shiba Inu dog. He's treating it all as a joke. But the destruction of government is deadly serious, and there's no reason why everyone should automatically participate in Musk's juvenile antics. Image
Read 18 tweets
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Dec 10
#THREAD

I've lost count of all the ultrarich privately educated 'anti-elites' in Reform UK!

Dubai World Trade Centre & Nick Candy's Candy Capital have a partnership to develop a “super-prime” real estate development in Dubai - where co-owner of GB "News", Legatum, is based! 🤑 Image
Candy joined the Tory party in 2009 & has donated at least £290,000 to it.

In February he gave an interview saying it was “probably time for a change” & that Keir Starmer was “a decent man with good values and good morals”.

Nick Candy is to become Reform UK's new treasurer! Image
He hopes to raise more than £40M for Reform UK: "This morning, I’ve had millions of pounds worth of donations from people that have never donated to a political party in this country. But it’s not just about getting rich donors & billionaire people or whatever."

"WHATEVER!" 👀 Image
Read 12 tweets
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Dec 9
#THREAD

My 2023 Open Letter about @BBCQuestiontime, read by 300,000 people in 144 countries, was widely reported in the media & informed questions asked of @BBC DG Tim Davie at a Parliamentary Select Committee.

Here's my 🧵 analysis of the recent episode of #bbcqt, featuring: Image
My main criticisms of #bbcqt were: poor & biased chairing, including a tolerance of panellists who continually interrupt; ambiguity about the audience political demographic; & the well-evidenced bias toward platforming panellists from right-leaning media.

yorkshirebylines.co.uk/politics/an-op…
The @BBC's desire to drive engagement means #bbcqt is now overly dependent on platforming guests known for generating division, soundbites, & polarising controversy, rather than engaging in nuanced, respectful debate, which compromises its duty to 'INFORM & EDUCATE' the public. Image
Read 74 tweets
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Dec 8
#THREAD

Farage has defended Reform UK MP James McMurdock, who was jailed for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend, & said 'he should be forgiven'.

In 2014, Farage dismissed a Polish MEP's comment that beating women "helps bring wives back to Earth", insisting it was "just a joke". Image
Back in 2014, the Board of Deputies of British Jews criticised Farage - then UKIP Leader - for striking a deal with far-right Polish party Congress of the New Right, whose leader has a history of #Holocaust denial and racist and misogynistic comments.

theguardian.com/politics/2014/…
In October 2014, UKIP, led by Farage, struck a deal with Polish MEP Robert Iwaszkiewicz - whose far-right party leader casually uses racial slurs and questions the Holocaust - following UKIP's fears that its grouping in Europe would lose millions of pounds in taxpayers’ funds. Image
Read 19 tweets

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