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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Colleague made sarky comment about me re. GB News

1000 replies

OneStepBeyondd · 30/05/2025 22:21

Discussion at work earlier - does anyone watch the news. Another colleague and I said we don’t mind GB news on occasion to which someone said (directed at me) - ‘I didn’t have you down as one of them’ in a judgemental tone.

Is it me or is that a bit rude and unnecessary?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
14
TempestTost · 31/05/2025 01:26

The Daily Mail, FWIW, also covers some stories well and has won news awards for doing so.

waltzingparrot · 31/05/2025 01:52

minnienono · 30/05/2025 22:30

I would have struggled not to snigger i admit, I certainly would have thought the same as your colleague. Gb news is extreme right wing propaganda not news

Extreme right wing propaganda 😂😂😂

ohfourfoxache · 31/05/2025 02:09

I’m really sorry, but I would actively avoid anyone who admitted to watching GB news

But I suspect that they would also avoid me like the plague if they realised that I’m a Guardian reader 🤣

youredreaming · 31/05/2025 02:17

OneStepBeyondd · 30/05/2025 22:21

Discussion at work earlier - does anyone watch the news. Another colleague and I said we don’t mind GB news on occasion to which someone said (directed at me) - ‘I didn’t have you down as one of them’ in a judgemental tone.

Is it me or is that a bit rude and unnecessary?

Mumsnet is for the most part filled with champagne socialists, well to do and very privileged people with no real clue about majority beliefs. The majority here look down on the working classes and call them slurs for disagreeing with them, so don't expect much truth or fairness in these responses.

Of course he was being rude, it was on purpose. Real people accept that GB news often has interesting news, and that everyone should get out of their echo chambers and read news from all sources instead of just deliberately confirming their own biases.

But he was signalling to others that he's a good and loyal member of the party who NEVER engages in wrongthink or tries to figure things out for himself. He will do as he is told and he do his best to police your thoughts, opinions and ideas too.

When a person has no real argument they will try to silence the person who is making them uncomfortable or speaking up in ways that challenge their views. A good way to do this is to attack their character, or make them afraid to even speak at all.

What he intended to do was make you seem like a low class, horrible human for daring to listen to a news source his group deems wrongthink.

If he can "other" you he can then write any opinions off that may challenge the accepted slogans from his group.

It's quite deliberate, just watch others try to do it to me.

OonaStubbs · 31/05/2025 02:33

GB News is just a news channel. No different to Sky News or BBC News. People are entitled to watch any news channel or read any newspaper they want, it doesn't make someone a better person just because they read the Guardian and not the Sun or Daily Mail.

TheAutumnCrow · 31/05/2025 03:04

Thatsrhesummeroverthen · 30/05/2025 23:55

I've heard some very-far-from misogynistic views on GB news clips.
For misogyny, I stick to the Guardian.

I’ve watched many of Andrew Doyle’s ‘Free Speech Nation’ shows on GB News.

Clever man, entertaining and honest, who has interviewed a number of key guests. In believing that sex matters in life and law, he’s on the same side as most people in the UK, the Supreme Court, and the Morning Star.

It’s the BBC and the Guardian that became riddled with extremist genderwang propaganda to the detriment of women’s rights and children’s safeguarding.

Caligirl80 · 31/05/2025 03:53

OneStepBeyondd · 30/05/2025 22:21

Discussion at work earlier - does anyone watch the news. Another colleague and I said we don’t mind GB news on occasion to which someone said (directed at me) - ‘I didn’t have you down as one of them’ in a judgemental tone.

Is it me or is that a bit rude and unnecessary?

GB News is universally ridiculed as being absolutely rubbish. Doesn't matter which political views you hold, the fact of the matter is that it has been a total disaster of a news program. And that by claiming you voluntarily watch it you are indeed flagging yourself as being a bit ignorant/naive etc. Because surely you can see that its production values and journalistic endeavours are subpar (and by subpar I mean non-existent).

Now: should your colleague have made that comment? Maybe not - but we don't have enough information here to know whether you all routinely talk about politics/debate each other on such things. Regardless of whether they should have said it they would - and many others would - definitely think it. Again, it's not even a political preferences issue, it's the fact that GB News has become a laughing stock in news media. It's like saying the Daily Star should be as well respected for its journalistic integrity as The Economist - it's utter nonsense.

If you want a better understanding of why GB News is universally ridiculed by journalists then get yourself a subscription to Private Eye magazine.

HingeBracket · 31/05/2025 04:13

Mrsknowitall · 30/05/2025 22:55

Omg what have you done to yourself 😂 didn’t you realise that mumsnet is full of lefties and only watch mainstream media! You are gonna get flamed for this lol (me too no doubt for this comment) but I too watch a bit of gb news along with mainstream news, reason being is that they report on everything that is really going on in the world that the mainstream media like to keep covered. Each to their own I say, live and let live. And yes your colleague was being a rude arsehole.

they report on everything that is really going on in the world that the mainstream media like to keep covered.

lol

HingeBracket · 31/05/2025 04:20

OneStepBeyondd · 30/05/2025 22:33

Blimey, I must say I didn’t realise it has something of a reputation! I only watch it once in a while if struggling for something else to watch, and I find Nigel entertaining on occasion too when he gets on his high horse!

You must be living under a rock not to know about its reputation. Watch you want, but there are stereotypes about the kind of people who watch GB news. It’s worth being aware surely.

QurikySparrowHatrack · 31/05/2025 04:55

According to MB/FC, GB News (the TV Station) scores:

"Mixed" for its factualness, and
"Right" for bias (though, with a score of 7.9 out of 10, it falls just short of the 8.0 threshold for "Extreme Right"

It's the only UK TV News show that scores a "Low Credibility".

It's website tends to score a little (but not much) better.

hattie43 · 31/05/2025 04:58

An awful lot of people watch GB news but you won’t find them on MN, I believe it’s breakfast programme had won a TRIC award for 2 yrs running beating the other main channels . All the insults flying from the running scared lefties is hilarious, the rise of Reform shows their policies and rhetoric aren’t wanted by an increasing number of the public. OP watch what you want , at the moment it’s still a free country .

Figcherry · 31/05/2025 04:59

I confess to missing being able to click on Liz Jones on a weekend to see what bat shit stuff she was spouting. However, hell will freeze over before I subscribe to the DM.
The Guardian also has some ridiculous opinion pieces so it’s not good to get too smug.
Never watched GB news.

TheaBrandt1 · 31/05/2025 05:08

Can’t believe someone suggested the Guardian as a reputable news source!

SendBooksAndTea · 31/05/2025 05:13

Unfortunately it says a lot about you as a person. GB news is well known for being factually dubious at best.

loobyloo1979 · 31/05/2025 05:19

I wouldn't have said anything to you but my face probably would have said enough!

hattie43 · 31/05/2025 05:20

Just how ‘ Right’ can it be when it’s regulated by Ofcom just like all the other channels. All this rhetoric above is just panic and misinformation talking about people being brainwashed etc. it just gives common sense a home .

TheaBrandt1 · 31/05/2025 05:22

Over the last 10 years the scales have fallen from my eyes with “left good / right bad” naive student politics world view. Starting with the centrist left response to the Cologne attacks then the trans issue. I am nostalgic for the days I was that naive innocent and blinkered.

Don’t listen to GB news but do now consume more widely from left and right to form my own opinion instead of blindly following the Guardian line. I boycott that rag now.

SoScarletItWas · 31/05/2025 05:26

OneStepBeyondd · 30/05/2025 22:33

Blimey, I must say I didn’t realise it has something of a reputation! I only watch it once in a while if struggling for something else to watch, and I find Nigel entertaining on occasion too when he gets on his high horse!

Do you notice its right wing tone when you watch it ‘occasionally’, or does it all seem bang on to you?

tuvamoodyson · 31/05/2025 05:29

youredreaming · 31/05/2025 02:17

Mumsnet is for the most part filled with champagne socialists, well to do and very privileged people with no real clue about majority beliefs. The majority here look down on the working classes and call them slurs for disagreeing with them, so don't expect much truth or fairness in these responses.

Of course he was being rude, it was on purpose. Real people accept that GB news often has interesting news, and that everyone should get out of their echo chambers and read news from all sources instead of just deliberately confirming their own biases.

But he was signalling to others that he's a good and loyal member of the party who NEVER engages in wrongthink or tries to figure things out for himself. He will do as he is told and he do his best to police your thoughts, opinions and ideas too.

When a person has no real argument they will try to silence the person who is making them uncomfortable or speaking up in ways that challenge their views. A good way to do this is to attack their character, or make them afraid to even speak at all.

What he intended to do was make you seem like a low class, horrible human for daring to listen to a news source his group deems wrongthink.

If he can "other" you he can then write any opinions off that may challenge the accepted slogans from his group.

It's quite deliberate, just watch others try to do it to me.

I missed where OP said it was a man? Anyway, FWIW, I would judge you too….

Wanttobefree2 · 31/05/2025 05:34

Katemax82 · 30/05/2025 22:38

Bollox to them, I watch gb news too..doesn't make you hitlers reincarnate

Agree I watch it too!!

HelpMeGetThrough · 31/05/2025 05:36

Watch what you want, do you care if other people judge you?

Ive got a WW2 poster on the hallway wall with Hitler in it, has raised a few eyebrows when people have come to the door.

daisychain01 · 31/05/2025 05:37

totk · 30/05/2025 23:08

Or maybe...it’s just a basic ability to handle watching something without immediately losing all critical thinking skills?

This idea that only your preferred media counts as news while everything else is “utter nonsense” is exactly the kind of echo chamber situ that’s made public debate so brittle. If someone’s watching a range of sources and thinking for themselves, they’re probably doing better than most.

You're asking the impossible, especially on here as is clear from the people who go into meltdown at the very thought that someone dares to watch, read or listen to sources of information that doesn't align to their world view. They just can't cope. Sad.

daisychain01 · 31/05/2025 05:43

Then why should it be given any credibility and treated the same as actual, reputable news sources? Even less for all the people for who it is their only "news" sources.

for that matter, there are people for whom their only source of news is X which is an absolutely cesspit. I don't trust any single news source as 100% valid, there will always be bias and slant placed on news stories. We're grown ups, and this is a democracy for better or worse.

abracadabra1980 · 31/05/2025 05:45

it was downright rude and I suspect you are in the south. I live in the north and not only is GB News watched by many, Talk Radio is extremely popular too. I'd hasten to add that in my line of work I meet professionals on a daily basis and not one of them is 'far right' Every individual is entitled to have a political view without it being pointed upon by those with an opposing one. Laugh it off and get on with your day.

MikeRafone · 31/05/2025 05:47

I would have said

its interesting what you find out about people, puts a different light on you

the whole idea of GB news is to create outrage for the viewers. It’s not news but churnalism, on repeat

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