GB News chief defends political lineup and says he wants to recruit more MPs as presenters

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The chief government of right-wing TV channel GB information has staunchly defended using serving politicians as presenters and mentioned he wants to recruit more MPs “of other parties” to be a part of the fray.

Angelos Frangopoulos mentioned GB News has been “trying very hard to encourage MPs of other parties to come on board and join them”.

Mr Frangopoulos additionally defended the channel’s present composition, explaining that solely three of their 34 presents are “serving politicians”, in reference to Lee Anderson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nigel Farage, who just isn’t an MP however heads up the right-wing challenger celebration Reform UK.

He additionally mentioned the hires of solely right-leaning MPs had been “not by design” and that GB information would “love” to have a “wide range of MPs on the channel” in the identical means that information stations such as LBC does.

The Australian-born TV government admitted that regardless of his channel participating in “discussions with political parties”, they haven’t but been profitable in recruiting different politicians as a result of some events “are not encouraging MPs to take second jobs”, he informed the Lords Communications and Digital Committee committee.

“It’s purely because we’re yet to find someone who will say yes”, he added.

The channel has come underneath fireplace from communications regulator Ofcom after it discovered that 5 episodes of GB News programmes offered by Tory MPs had been discovered have damaged broadcasting guidelines.

Two episodes of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State Of The Nation, two of Friday Morning With Esther And Phil, and considered one of Saturday Morning With Esther And Phil, broadcast throughout May and June 2023, broke due impartiality guidelines, Ofcom mentioned.

It comes six months after the regulator discovered an episode of GB News’s The Live Desk, aired in July 2023, broke the identical guidelines.

Ofcom mentioned: “We found that host politicians acted as newsreaders, news interviewers or news reporters in sequences which clearly constituted news – including reporting breaking news events – without exceptional justification.

“News was, therefore, not presented with due impartiality.”

Ofcom added that politicians performed a “partial role in society”, and information content material offered by them was “likely to be viewed by audiences in light of that perceived bias”.

“In our view, the use of politicians to present the news risks undermining the integrity and credibility of regulated broadcast news,” it added.

The channel was additionally not too long ago rapped by Ofcom after it dominated misogynistic feedback made by actor Laurence Fox a few feminine journalist had damaged broadcasting guidelines that defend “viewers from offensive content”.

The communications regulator has warned that additional breaches by GB News may end in a statutory sanction, which vary from an order not to reuse the offending content material, to revoking a broadcaster’s licence.

Mr Frangopoulos informed friends that his channel had obtained 50 inquiries from Ofcom over previous three years, however mentioned the channel had cooperated absolutely with each.

He additionally argued that audiences have “different expectations” for impartiality from completely different channels and GB information is “part of ecosystem” of stories and maintained that “our brand has trust”.