Andrew Neil slams BBC as he launches GB News
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Tonight, Mr Neil is launching GB News at 8pm, the biggest news channel to launch since Sky thirty decades ago. The former BBC host is the chairman of the new channel and will be hosting his own primetime programme. Mr Neil compared GB News to American news channels, which don’t do continuous rolling news like Sky or the BBC News channel, but do offer a combination of news, opinion and debates.
He said on Good Morning Britain: “It will be more like MSNBC in America, which is on the left, and Fox [News], which is on the right.
“They don’t do rolling news. They do news when it breaks, but they don’t do continuous rolling news.”
He insisted it will “not be shouty, angry television” and that it will conform to Ofcom rules on impartiality.
However, many of their well-known presenters have been outspoken against so-called ‘woke culture’.
According to Mr Neil, part of this ‘woke culture’ are people like the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Meghan and Harry have talked a lot about issues like mental health, racism, sexism and climate change since stepping down as senior royals last year.
Their most explosive venture into the public eye during this period was of course their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this year.
In this interview, they opened up about why they left the Royal Family and made some shocking claims.
In a video for SpectatorTV, Mr Neil mocked the Sussexes for doing such a huge interview despite claiming they wanted to live a more private life.
He said: “Now, the clearly publicity-shy minor royals, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, opened to real royalty this week, Queen Oprah of all the Americas and beyond.
“Only about another 100 million or so around the globe got to watch or listen too so the couple must have been pleased that their wish for privacy was being respected.
“Much of the content was absurdly trivial like tears over a floral dress, but where the interview touched on race and mental health matters it was incendiary enough to provoke an onslaught on the Royal Family from around the globe.”
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Freddy Gray, US Editor at The Spectator, added that he thought Meghan and Harry were establishing themselves as a “House of Woke” in California.
He said: “We tend to overuse the word woke, it’s a bit of a catch-all, but it is quite useful in summing up their world view.
“And their world view is very much oriented around celebrity and therapy, really, because if you watch the Oprah interview, it’s like a long counselling session.”
Mr Neil then made a point which is particularly poignant in the light of the recent controversy over the name Lilibet that Meghan and Harry chose for their newborn daughter.
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In their interview with Oprah, the Sussexes made sure to praise the Queen, with Meghan saying she had always been “wonderful” to her and Harry insisting he did not blindside his grandmother because he has “too much respect” for her.
Mr Neil argued that they obviously cannot get away with “trashing” the Queen because her global image is “unparalleled.”
On the other hand, they are attacking the institution that she is a head of.
Many people have pointed out the irony of the Sussexes naming their child Lilibet after all the criticism of the organisation the Queen heads up.
In the podcast Pod Save the Queen, host Ann Gripper read out several comments from listeners in this vein.
One comment that summed it up read: “This should be such a happy announcement but unfortunately again it’s become a circus.
“The audacity to use the Queen’s family nickname is utterly bizarre after everything they’ve done in recent times to cause HIM continued stress, hurt and problems and to trash the institution they hate so much.
“And no mention of Meghan’s mum – maximum royal, maximum drama, maximum attention, a true pattern with them sadly.”
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