It is probably fair to say that GB News, the UK’s new conservative TV channel, has launched to a somewhat mixed reception.
The Telegraph derided the content as “unutterably awful; boring, repetitive and cheapskate”. Others criticised its claims of being “anti-woke” and unbiased as simply bias in another direction.
Still more have pointed to the age of the presenters, wondered aloud why any young person would tune in, and predicted its swift demise. After all, Britain is not ready for a rightwing TV channel.
But those looking in from afar – specifically Australia – are warning not to underestimate it and its leader.
And they predict that ultimately the channel will blossom like the rightwing, Murdoch-run Sky News Australia, where the GB News chief executive, Angelos Frangopoulos, made his name.
“Sky is very successful here, particularly when you also take account of the online numbers,” says Paul Barry, the presenter of the ABC’s Media Watch program and one of Sky News Australia’s fiercest critics. “I am sure it will work in the UK.”
“They are underestimating…
