GB News, week 1: It takes until Tuesday to go full wingnut
There’s a moment during the first Monday night of GB News’s programming when its chairman, the former BBC broadcaster Andrew Neil, finds himself staring into the abyss. The Abyss’s name is Dan Wootton, and the Abyss is very pleased with himself. He’s cheerfully telling Neil about his fact-free lockdown scepticism, and Neil, who is still wedded to logic, looks worried that his career is in a burning clown car.
The grinning Abyss has a three-hour programme every night (straight after Neil’s), featuring other nihilistic information vacuums like Nigel Farage and Rod Liddle. I believe it’s called Stare into the Abyss for Three Hours, and it does what it says on the tin...
...It doesn’t take long for Wootton to go full wingnut. On Tuesday he highlights a baseless conspiracy theory about how lockdowns might ultimately be a government plot to curb carbon emissions. Does he have facts to back this up? No. But he’s the type of journalist who doesn’t need facts. He prefers to ask questions. You know, like your four-year-old: What is a dog? Why is the moon? Are spiders happy? Is Isis funding the BBC?
There are some dissenting voices on Wootton’s panel, but most of his guests are a who’s-who of trollkind. They include Allison Pearson, Rod Liddle, Claire Fox, Megyn Kelly, Laurence Fox, Lady Colin Campbell, Lord Voldemort, Scrooge McDuck, the millionaire from the cover of the Monopoly Box, Cruella DeVil, Megatron, Gargamel from the Smurfs and Nigel Farage. (Only the worst seven actually appear.)...
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/gb-n ... -1.4596133
