[imagesource: GB News]

Fox News is a profit machine, and shows hosted by the likes of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are among the most-watched on cable news TV.

You only need to look at the success of The Daily Mail (or the comments section under any story) to know that the UK is ripe for something similar, and now it has GB News.

Dubbed “a kind of weird little British cousin of Fox News” by The Daily Beast, the channel launched on Sunday, and it hasn’t been without a few hiccups.

Well, perhaps having a guest on who argues that it’s not fair to call Jeffrey Epstein a paedophile is a little more than a hiccup.

During a segment bashing Meghan Markle and Prince Harry (an old classic), royal socialite Lady Colin Campbell really chose a weird hill to die on:

GB News are currently interviewing a guest who’s defending Prince Andrew and denying that Jeffrey Epstein was a paedophile.

Yes. Seriously.pic.twitter.com/mQjswEMGjG

— Evolve Politics (@evolvepolitics) June 15, 2021

Oh, dear.

We’ve always had a good chuckle at ANN7, but the production quality of GB News also leaves a great deal to be desired:

The sound and picture quality have made the channel look like it’s being broadcast from the previous century—although that may come as a comfort to a target demographic that is terrified by the modern world. Following complaints and videos of repeated in-studio foul-ups going viral on Twitter, the network said it was working hard on its technical set-up.

Then there are the pranks.

Surely, when running a news channel, you vet the name ‘Mike Hunt’ before saying it on live telly?

It’s a technological car crash. Either there’s a real Mike Hunt out there, or someone was having a laugh… editorial discretion should be advised… #GBNews pic.twitter.com/jhCPl6cwdO

— Ian Pinnell (@ianpinnell) June 15, 2021

I’m not going to explain that one, for the same reason I won’t explain why you shouldn’t trust anybody called ‘Mike Oxlong’:

They got done by a Mike Oxlong. Incredible pic.twitter.com/oLXD15cFQa

— Alan White (@aljwhite) June 15, 2021

Who likes a good drill sound mid-broadcast?

Today on GB News there’s a new presenter called Drill. pic.twitter.com/qK9YAca0oM

— Gerald Somers (@Gerald__Somers) June 16, 2021

In fact, these mistakes are now so regular that there’s even a Twitter account dedicated to them.

Would there ever be a lockdown in “Newscastle”? Where is this mystic place? Funnily enough the creator of this account is from a similar place called Newcastle. #GBNewsFails pic.twitter.com/bOkj0D7cPj

— GBNews Fails (@GBNewsFails) June 16, 2021

At the time of writing, it already has more than 26 000 followers.

These gaffes are embarrassing, but they don’t sink a news channel.

Losing advertisers, however, does:

 Several advertisers have pulled their commercials from GB News, with the most notable company, Ikea, saying the channel is “not in line with our humanistic values.” Beer-maker Grolsch said in a statement confirming its ad-pull that it “prides itself on core values of inclusion and openness to all people.”

[Andrew Neil—the Murdoch Empire veteran who founded the channel] has found an inevitable ally in Piers Morgan, the U.K. broadcaster who has also made a late-career lurch toward ridiculing millennial snowflakes even though he was last seen flouncing out of his own studio.

Morgan branded Ikea as “pathetic virtue-signalling twerps” for their stance against GB News, and he threatened to stop buying flatpack furniture.

Amazing how conservatives rail constantly against cancel culture, but don’t see any irony in constantly threatening to boycott certain brands.

GB News will iron out those kinks, you’d imagine, and continue its relentless crusade against wokeness and all those other boogeymen used to work its target audience into a frenzy.

There’s certainly a market for it, reports Deadline:

The channel has enjoyed strong ratings since its launch, with its opening hour attracting an audience of 262,000 viewers, which was more than double BBC News’ audience at the same time, according to UK trade Broadcast.

Monday’s breakfast show was seen by 79,000, which beat Sky News’ audience of 58,000 in the same three-hour slot.

We’re probably not too far away from a show called ‘Brexit means Brexit’.

[sources:dailybeast&deadline]