Ask UK

jabjoe , in What's the deal with gbnews?
@jabjoe@feddit.uk avatar

It's an entertainment channel, that happens to have "news" in it's name. So not subject to news rules. So it can have Tory MPs as presenters interviewing other Tory MPs as guests.

That OK isn't it? Not remotely dishonest and unbalanced....

They will get shutdown soon enough for this dishonest nasty stuff. Or, as they will say, "silenced by the woke main stream for telling the truth". It's kind of what they want.

UKFilmNerd , in What's the deal with gbnews?
@UKFilmNerd@feddit.uk avatar

Sadly, when I fix apps on my dad's tablet, I notice he has YouTube subscribed to GBNews. I have to avoid any political discussion with him as he has gone down the rabbit hole and repeated many crazy theories which I debunk immediately, but I don't think he believes me.

GreatAlbatross , in What's the deal with gbnews?
@GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk avatar

Also not helped by gammons migrating to the sunnier bits of europe, then talking about how GB news has it right.
So people in european countries get Barry, 60, as their reference for UK media, making it look more legitimate.

homesweethomeMrL , in What's the deal with gbnews?

As a dumb American, it’s part of a continuing trend to support global fascism through batshit right-wing media outlets. Anything Murdoch owned and “other”. Here, it’s mutated into webcasts and twitter/“other” social media platforms, but the goal is always the same: Spin, deflect, gaslight, lie, deny, and keep oligarchs in power damn the cost. It’s ridiculously effective and very cheap, relatively speaking.

What you’re describing happened to all our friends and family in the late 90’s / early-2000’s.

See also: Australia, New Zealand, India, France, Germany, Ital- well, Italy might be organic, who knows ;)

Emperor , (edited ) in What's the deal with gbnews?
@Emperor@feddit.uk avatar

It's basically the UK's Fox News but perhaps even less impartial as it let's politicians host shows - it definitely feels like an attempt to shift the Overton Window to the right. Quite why it hasn't been sanctioned by Ofcom is unclear.

There's a good overview here.

edit: this is the key part for me:

Around this time, the charity Hope not Hate published an investigation reporting that Paul Marshall, the founder of news and commentary website UnHerd and co-owner of what it called the “right-wing channel GB News”, had used his X account in a way that suggests “he holds a deeply disturbing view of modern Britain.”

The holding company that owns GB News is called All Perspectives Ltd. It has two major shareholders: Legatum Ltd and Sir Paul, who own 41.2 per cent of the company each. Marshall’s fortune is put at an estimated £800m from his career as a hedge fund manager. He does not post on X much. He does, however, retweet and “like” what Hope not Hate described as “notorious hate accounts such as the Britain First deputy leader Ashlea Simon, American anti-Muslim campaigner Amy Mek and the shady Italian anti-migration account Radio Genoa.”

Marshall, who is also bidding for ownership of the Telegraph and the Spectator, “has repeatedly liked and retweeted extremist content from an array of far-right and conspiracy theorist accounts,” the charity found. A representative for Marshall issued a statement noting that “as most X/Twitter users know, it can be a fountain of ideas, but some of it is of uncertain quality and all his posts have now been deleted to avoid any further misunderstanding.” What was “misunderstood” was not explained, but if the head honcho likes and retweets views like this, then the cast of eccentrics and Looney Tunes characters given airtime on his channel begins to make more sense.

Here is the Hope Not Hate article that draws from.

br3d ,

It also feels like a way to funnel bribes to politicians in plain sight, by paying them massive sums to rant at a camera with barely anyone watching

Emperor ,
@Emperor@feddit.uk avatar

From February:

GB News has paid Conservative MPs more than £660,000 in appearance fees and salaries since it launched, against just £1,100 to Labour MPs, Guardian analysis shows.

fakeman_pretendname , in What's the deal with gbnews?

It had very poor viewing/listening figures for quite a long time, and was generally seen as a bit of a joke, but they've been growing alarmingly in the last year - though still comparatively low.

If you see a report saying "GB News hits 1 million viewers", note that this was corrected a few days later to "actually it was only 33,000".

So currently, it's generally not trusted or respected, and is kind of seen as a joke, but like UKIP, Brexit, Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, Donald Trump as US President etc, it's a dangerous joke that we should be taking more seriously.

breadsmasher , in What's the deal with gbnews?
@breadsmasher@lemmy.world avatar
  1. Are you middle aged and unsuccessful?
  2. Do you blame every problem in your life on foreigners and immigrants?
  3. Want to have fear mongering propaganda blasted into your brain all day?

If so, youll love GBNews!

Colour_me_triggered OP ,

So how big of a problem is it?

9point6 ,

Not a huge one yet, it's mostly the already-gone daily mail brainworms lot that watch it.

But it has every intention (along with Murdoch's talktv) of being as much of a tumour on our society as fox news is in the states.

I think we need another round of stopfundinghate

hellfire103 , in Midge defence?
@hellfire103@lemmy.ca avatar

Use Smidge. It's the best repellant.

Also, get some citronella. You can get it as oil (for burning), as tealights, as rope (also for burning), as incense... It does the trick in Northumberland, though I'm not so sure about Loch Latrine. Those midges might be a bit tougher.

AlpacaChariot OP ,

I got some smidge for Day 2; sadly I already looked like I had chicken pox at that point so it's difficult to tell if it helped much!

Kolanaki , in Midge defence?
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

You're already doing it. They can't get in the tent. Just stay in the tent. If you didn't stake the tent down, you should be able to move around the area by hopping in the tent.

Also: You willingly are camping in an area known as Loch Latrine? Does it smell like it sounds? 🤭

AlpacaChariot OP ,

Haha, that should be Katrine (thanks autocorrect).

Sounds like I need a tent with arm and leg tubes like those fume cupboards for handling hazardous chemicals, so I can turtle tent around Scotland :D

hellfire103 , in Midge defence?
@hellfire103@lemmy.ca avatar

goddamn...

OrkneyKomodo , in Midge defence?
@OrkneyKomodo@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Smidge! Buy smidge. It works really well against a variety of biting things.

Obi , in Midge defence?
@Obi@sopuli.xyz avatar

I've not tried it myself but when researching stuff like this (mostly for my wife, she gets targeted) I saw a lot of people raving about these chemical disperser devices from Thermacells. They're supposedly safe and pretty eco-friendly though personally I'm still having troubles believing that when talking about a device that clears all insects in a 15m radius within a few minutes and lasts for hours.

Aussiemandeus ,
@Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone avatar

Thermacells are amazing, I live in Northern Australia in humid hot horrible places.

When we go fishing we take one on the boat and it keeps them away.

Now if they could make one for crocodiles too, then we would be set

AlpacaChariot OP ,

Never seen those before, thanks!

Emperor , in Midge defence?
@Emperor@feddit.uk avatar

I always get eaten alive, luckily my antihistamines stop most bites punching through (but when they do... Oh boy!). I always find the only solution is insect repellent.

AlpacaChariot OP ,

I'm on some really strong antihistamines (fenofexadine) but sadly that didn't seem to put them off!

Emperor ,
@Emperor@feddit.uk avatar

They don't put them off, just makes the bites less inflamed. You need to team them with insect repellent.

Hossenfeffer , in Midge defence?
@Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk avatar

In the company of my family, I can only find some small comfort in the evident fact that I protect them by being so fucking delicious that the little flying bastards are gagging for a piece of me and so ignore them. And no, I am not prepared to be a ritual sacrifice for you and yours as well. Fuck, I hate the midges.

AlpacaChariot OP ,

I've been reading up on them and apparently the females bite to feed on blood in order to mature their eggs, which they can lay & hatch in 24h...so if you're in one place for more than a day it may actually get progressively worse.

"I was a hossenfeffer biter, like my mother, and my mother's mother, and my mother's mother's mother..."

Hossenfeffer ,
@Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk avatar

I've always been irresistible to the 'ladies'.

Numenor , in Midge defence?

Whose hair is that?

AlpacaChariot OP ,

Remnants of my small child, we sacrificed her to the midges to save ourselves. RIP

(It's a guyline tied up on the outside of the tent)

Diplomjodler3 ,

Try bringing a bigger child next time.

Alexstarfire ,

Based on your picture, they were not satisfied. Do better next time.

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