It is probably fair to say that GB News, the UKs 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 ABCs Media Watch program and one of Sky News Australias fiercest critics. I am sure it will work in the UK.
They are underestimating him, says Janine Perrett, a veteran business journalist who worked with Frangopoulos for a decade at Sky.
Dr Denis Muller, a senior researcher at the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne, also doesnt hesitate to predict success for GB News.
I think so, absolutely, he says. This is part of redtop populist journalism. There is a big appetite for that in the UK.
Media watchers in Australia already see product parallels between the nascent GB News, which began broadcasting on 13 June, and Sky in Australia.
The new channel has borrowed heavily from Australias Sky News in its focus and formats, although unlike the Australian version, which reverts to a breaking news format during the day, GB News is going down the path of 24-hour commentary and discussions.
Frangopoulos, who spent two decades at Sky News Australia, is credited with having honed the art of cheap but compelling panel-style conservative television.
Sky News in Australia began life as a 24-hour news channel in 1996, owned by the commercial TV networks, News Corp and the telecommunications company Telstra. But it soon added a night-time panel format, known as Sky After Dark.
Since Rupert Murdochs News Corp took full ownership in 2016, the After Dark lineup has morphed into a steady diet of strident rightwing conservative opinion, more aligned with Fox News. It doesnt mind a controversy or three.
GB News has gone straight for the part of Sky that rates best: panel shows heavy on opinion and commentary.
If Frangopoulos continues to follow his previous playbook, one can expect GB News will take aim at the same hot-button issues that are daily fodder in Australia: the national broadcaster, climate change, immigration, Muslims, Covid lockdowns, government spending, the opposition, environmentalists and political correctness in schools.
The first ratings for GB News have been promising.
According to the UK TV industry magazine Broadcast, GB News peaked in its opening minutes with 336,000 viewers and averaged 262,000 viewers, meaning it outperformed the 100,000 who watched BBC News across the hour and the 46,000 who watched the British Sky News.
Frangopoulos comes with a long pedigree in commercial TV news and nearly two decades in 24-hour news. Former colleagues in Australia describe him as a real newsman.
Hes one of the best I have worked with, says Perrett.
She says he was particularly good at spotting and managing the talent and convincing them to stay at a network that paid them very little.
He certainly has TV news in his blood, says David Speers, who served as Sky News Australias political editor for over a decade until 2020, when he moved to the ABC, Australias public broadcaster. He began as a television journalist and he has extraordinary drive and vision about what he wants.
Both point to Frangopouloss willingness to try new things and innovate.
Sky in Australia began as a smell of an oily rag news channel where presenters did their own makeup and appeared in front of automated cameras. But soon it was winning awards.
Its election coverage was praised. The channel revived a peoples town hall for staging election debates. Its in-depth political interviews were rewarded with Walkleys, Australian journalisms highest honour.
But over the years its night-time lineup of provocative panel-style discussions crept deeper into the schedule and has steered solidly to the right.
In those early days, these panels often featured journalists from other media groups because they would appear for free and were polished talent. But under Frangopoulos the channel began recruiting provocateurs, mainly from the right but sometimes from the left as well.
Frangopoulos was happy to have a contest of ideas and didnt mind having journalists from non-News Corp publications on Sky, Perrett says.
But that changed when News Corp bought out the other shareholders in 2016 and took full control of Sky in Australia. Frangopoulos quickly sniffed what the new management wanted and Sky lurched further to the right.
The extent to which Frangopoulos is responsible for the Foxification of Sky News in Australia is a matter of hot debate.
Anti-immigration voices like Pauline Hanson, the leader of the Australias One Nation party, and Mark Latham, a maverick former Labor leader who has now joined One Nation as a state MP, were given airtime by Frangopoulos.
There were some ugly incidents under his watch. Former Liberal MP Ross Cameron was sacked from the Outsiders program the channels most over-the-top panel show after he described Chinese people as black-haired, slanty-eyed, yellow-skinned. Latham was sacked from the same show over his response to a video about feminism made by students at Sydney Boys high school. Latham called the teenagers dickheads and said: I thought the first guy was gay.
After the full takeover by News Corp, a number of its high-profile rightwing columnists were given prime-time slots the likes of Andrew Bolt and Miranda Devine.
Appearances by media identities from other organisations were phased out, Labor presenters mostly dropped, and figures like Peta Credlin, former conservative prime minister Tony Abbotts chief of staff, were promoted as stars and cross-promoted through columns in Murdoch-owned newspapers.
Barry says the After Dark lineup is now regularly getting peaks of 85,000 viewers and an average viewership of 60,000.
Its three to four times the audience they get throughout the day for the news channel, he says.
And when its in its panel mode, it regularly outguns the ABCs 24-hour news channel.
People who watch Sky here love it, says Barry. The Australian [Murdochs national daily newspaper] also has strong appeal to its audiences. Stories on climate change or political correctness attract hundreds of comments.
While that partisan popularity is evident observers say Sky has also been a contributing factor in the coarsening of the political debate in Australia. Its commentators often rail against against what they see as leftwing abuse of politicians they admire and attack journalists who take Sky to task on accuracy.
In recent weeks the channel has been forced to apologise to a former Greens leader after falsely accusing him of inciting criminal behaviour by anti-logging protests and to former prime minister Kevin Rudd after Credlin claimed his petition calling for a royal commission into the Murdoch media was a data-harvesting exercise.
Another commentator, Alan Jones, was also forced this year to publish a correction to a 2020 editorial railing against Covid restrictions in Victoria after a watchdog ruling that he had misrepresented the research on the effectiveness of masks and lockdowns.
Most who discount Skys influence in Australia point to its relatively small audience on pay TV compared with, say, the main ABC channel, which regularly attracts 700,000-plus viewers to its prime-time news bulletin, and the millions who listen to the ABC radio news.
But Muller says Skys influence is much greater than its ratings.
Its influence on Australian politics is amplified by being part of the bigger News Corp commentariat, he says.
News Corp has also employed deliberate strategies to get Sky in front of decision-makers. Federal politicians receive free Foxtel pay TV subscriptions in their offices, giving them access to Sky News. Sky News is also ubiquitous in all the executive lounges at airports.
Sky has also sought to extend its reach into regional Australia through deals with television operators to carry its After Dark programs on free-to-air TV. This could see it reach 7 million people in some of the more conservative areas.
Muller says Sky has also extended its reach with an aggressive strategy to disseminate its content via the internet and social media to international audiences.
The After Dark shows are cut into bite-sized videos that are then uploaded on to Skys YouTube channel so they can be readily shared via social media.
Barry agrees with Muller: Some of those videos get over a million views. Its a central part of News Corps strategy to appeal to rightwing audiences internationally.
Popular Sky News Australia videos include reports on an alleged coverup by China on the activities of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of Covid-19; commentary on Joe Bidens alleged cognitive decline; Hunter Biden and allegations of corrupt dealings; the stolen US election.
This in turn has seen Sky After Dark commentators venture ever deeper into US politics and topics that might be more at home on a QAnon website, such as the Great Reset, which according to Skys Rowan Dean is an evil agenda by woke billionaires to dismantle capitalism that is being pushed via the next Davos economic summit and promoted by Prince Charles.
Whether GB News will elect to actively pursue an online audience through social media remains to be seen, but Frangopoulos will be familiar with all the strategies to make his mouse roar.
Among Frangopouloss former colleagues in Australia theres speculation that GB News could be a stalking horse for News Corps ambitions to launch a Fox News-style channel in the UK, or at the least a testing ground to see if a right-aligned news product can work.
News Corp had talked about starting its own Fox News-style channel in the UK but in April announced it was no longer pursuing a traditional cable channel and would instead focus on online video rather than linear TV.
Few leave the bosom of News Corp and remain within the fold. But Frangopoulos appears to still enjoy good standing, despite departing from Sky News Australia in 2018 for a job at Sky News Arabia, which is not owned by News.
Frangopoulos surprised many by appearing at Lachlan Murdochs 2019 Christmas drinks at his harbourside mansion in Sydney and was seen chatting cordially with Newss executives.
GB News has so far received benign coverage in the News Corp-owned UK papers, which are not shy about attacking media rivals.
The question many in Australia are asking is: if GB News succeeds will Murdoch be willing to cede the territory of rightwing television to another? And is there room for two?
The Guardian approached Frangopoulos for an interview, but he was not available during the launch week.
Go here to see the original:
- 19 Shocking Examples Of How Political Correctness Is ... [Last Updated On: June 12th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 12th, 2016]
- Political Correctness / Cultural Marxism - Discover the ... [Last Updated On: June 12th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 12th, 2016]
- The origin and nature of political correctness (26/11/2015) [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2016]
- The Origins of Political Correctness - Accuracy In Academia [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2016]
- Political Correctness - Blogs - Jerusalem Post [Last Updated On: June 17th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2016]
- Political correctness - the awful truth [Last Updated On: June 17th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2016]
- 20 Outrageous Examples That Show How Political Correctness ... [Last Updated On: June 17th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2016]
- Political correctness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Last Updated On: June 17th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2016]
- Political correctness Archives | Human Stupidity ... [Last Updated On: June 19th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 19th, 2016]
- Political correctness Archives | Human Stupidity ... [Last Updated On: June 26th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 26th, 2016]
- Political correctness - Simple English Wikipedia, the free ... [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2016]
- How to Be Politically Correct (with Pictures) - wikiHow [Last Updated On: July 1st, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 1st, 2016]
- Urban Dictionary: political correctness [Last Updated On: July 3rd, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 3rd, 2016]
- Political Correctness = Language and Thought Control ... [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2016]
- Political Correctness = Language and Thought Control - The ... [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2016]
- Political correctness - Uncyclopedia - Wikia [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2016]
- political correctness - The American Prospect [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2016]
- Political correctness | The Economist [Last Updated On: July 23rd, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 23rd, 2016]
- The Phony Debate About Political Correctness - ThinkProgress [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2016] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2016]
- Political correctness - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: November 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: November 21st, 2016]
- Political Correctness Watch [Last Updated On: December 2nd, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 2nd, 2016]
- Political correctness: how the right invented a phantom ... [Last Updated On: December 4th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 4th, 2016]
- Political Correctness Gone Mad - TV Tropes [Last Updated On: December 8th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 8th, 2016]
- The Origins of Political Correctness - academia.org [Last Updated On: January 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: January 13th, 2017]
- Letter: A guide to political correctness - Carroll County Times [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Sports: America's Great Escape from Political Correctness - American Spectator [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Letter: Political correctness has gone too far - The Herald-News [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Boy Scouts ruined by political correctness: Your Say - USA TODAY [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Spicer says 'political correctness' infringes on 'freedom of religion' - Washington Post [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Spicer Says Religious Liberty Is Getting 'Pushed Out' By Political Correctness - TPM [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Trump's right-wing political correctness makes us less safe - Daily Kos - Daily Kos [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Political correctness exists to build respect for the oppressed - Kenyon Collegian [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Fixing political correctness - The Stanford Daily [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Authoritarian political correctness - Dailyuw [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Letter: Political correctness is akin to golden rule - The Buffalo News - Buffalo News [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- We must take a wrecking ball to political correctness to achieve our true economic potential - City A.M. [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Slamming 'political correctness,' Casper scraps recycling program ... - Casper Star-Tribune Online [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Too PC? - Two Views on Political Correctness - Huffington Post [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Political correctness is life and death on a hilarious It's Always Sunny - A.V. Club [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- To a Collegian columnist: Disregarding political correctness hinders social justice causes - Kenyon Collegian [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Pro-Trump priest casts political correctness aside and creates quite ... - BizPac Review [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- Foregoing Political Correctness, The Senate Should Have Let Warren Speak - Daily Caller [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- Netflix Boycott Over 'Dear White People' Is Right-Wing Political Correctness in Action - Heat Street [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- Trump's Right-wing Political Correctness Makes Us Less Safe - Huffington Post [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- When Will They Purge Indian History Of Political Correctness And Teach Us As It Is? - Swarajya [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- Editorial: Brown puts political correctness above jobs - Daily Astorian [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2017]
- Slamming 'political correctness,' Casper scraps recycling program for electronics - Casper Star-Tribune Online [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2017]
- Letter: Political correctness has endangered our safety | INFORUM - INFORUM [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Letter to the editor: Political correctness has influenced minds - Post Register [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Political Correctness Is An Absolute Must | Time.com [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Political Correctness Propagates Radical Liberalism and Undermines The Truth - Accuracy In Media (blog) [Last Updated On: February 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 17th, 2017]
- Words, Tweets and Stones in the "Political Correctness" Wars ... - EconoTimes [Last Updated On: February 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 17th, 2017]
- 'Political correctness' mostly used as epithet - Walton Tribune [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- PewDiePie: Alt-Right Nazi, Victim of Political Correctness, or Just an Idiot? - Reason (blog) [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- Political correctness weaponized in face of unpopular opinion - The Vermilion [Last Updated On: February 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 19th, 2017]
- Trevor Phillips: 'Political correctness ushered in the populist wave' - The Guardian [Last Updated On: February 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 19th, 2017]
- Ferguson Political Correctness - The Missourian [Last Updated On: February 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 19th, 2017]
- The folly of political correctness is exposed by one of its high priests ... - The Times (subscription) [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- Populist correctness: the new PC culture of Trump's America and Brexit Britain - The Guardian [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- Political correctness on a downward spiral - NCC Linked [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- Publishers Pen - Political Correctness and Lawlessness: A Rant - Up & Coming Weekly [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2017]
- Better Education Responsible for Political Correctness - NYU Washington Square News [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2017]
- Fed up with political correctness - The Rushville Republican [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2017]
- The Dark State of Political Correctness - American Spectator [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2017]
- Thursday February 23, 2017 - Israel Hayom [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Jim Bailey column: Caught up in political correctness - The Herald Bulletin [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Political correctness is to blame for terrorist payout, says Leo McKinstry - Express.co.uk [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Jones: It's not political correctness, just common decency - Philly.com [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Thursday's best TV: Born Too White; Has Political Correctness Gone ... - The Guardian [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Is There Space For Political Correctness In Fashion? Gucci Says Maybe Not - Refinery29 [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Op-ed: He's just saying what we're all thinking: How political correctness fails us in the age of Trump - The Eagle [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- The Bus Campaign That's Giving UK Political Correctness a Run for ... - CBN News [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- CPAC inadvertently shows logic behind political correctness - UT The Daily Texan [Last Updated On: February 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 25th, 2017]
- Despite Rumblings About Political Correctness, the Black Oscar Nominees This Year Deserve All the Accolades - Heat Street [Last Updated On: February 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 25th, 2017]
- The backlash to political correctness was inevitable - Shoreline Beacon [Last Updated On: February 26th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 26th, 2017]
- EDITORIAL: Political correctness ... and more absurdities | The ... - The Daily Progress [Last Updated On: February 26th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 26th, 2017]
- Political correctness puts end to much loved television characters ... - Starts at 60 [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Political Correctness Hurt the Oscars - WSAU (blog) [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Fox News' Tucker Carlson says 'Moonlight' only won Best Picture because of political correctness - ThinkProgress [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]
- Is political correctness killing US institutions? - Canada Free Press [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]