this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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UK Politics

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I recently posted an article about the effects of Fox News to the politics community.

Fox News is like a virus of the mind, it attacks and destroys reasonable thinking and puts people in a constant state of fear so they're addicted to watching the program. It tears apart families and infects other with their propaganda too. It spreads lies, misinformation and disinformation.

When I first found out about GB News I felt really worried that another country would have what is essentially a carbon copy of Fox News. It's the same brainwashing slop that differs only in accent. That's why I want to warn about this and do what I can to stop it, I don't want anyone else to suffer the way we're suffering in America. It's scary here, people are getting detained for no reason, even U.S. citizens who had valid ID on them.

I also see Fox News as being similar to a cancer. It will keep growing and growing until someone stops it. In America we didn't do enough to stop Fox News so the cancer has been growing, spreading to other parts of the body and now we're really sick. With advance treatment I think we'll make it but it's not going to be easy. Once we beat our cancer we'll probably have to spend a lot of time fixing the damage caused by the cancer.

My understanding is that GB News is still somewhat in it's infancy, like a stage 1 or stage 2 cancer. You can beat GB News a lot easier than we can beat Fox News. That's why I'm calling on you to take action now and defeat GB News.

You have the power to prevent the U.K. from becoming like the U.S. I recently found out about a campaign called "Stop Funding Hate". They do a great job listing who advertised on GB News on their Bluesky account.. Consider following them and contacting the advertisers. It could only take a few minutes a day and it will make a huge difference in defunding hate.

Another idea is writing to Legatum, the foreign Dubai based investors who own GB News. Contact them here: https://www.legatum.com/about/contact/. Tell them you don't like GB News.

Also consider sending this video: https://bsky.app/profile/stopfundingheat.bsky.social/post/3lnhwsu7h6c2j to Ofcom. Proof that the purpose of GB News is influence.

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[–] Delta_V@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Mudroch propaganda machine has been operating in U.K. for a long time already. The disease is more advanced than this post suggests.

[–] BoycottPro@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I heard that Sky News got sold and I think since improved but you're right that there are a lot of non-Murdoch bad publications like The Daily Mail.

Is there a different Murdoch-owned new station or newspaper I don't know about in the U.K.?

[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times

[–] BoycottPro@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Thank you for that! I didn't know he owned so many. I wish News Corp called themselves News Corpse because News Corp is where honest news and integrity go to die. (Note that these publications are actually owned by News UK but one of his other companies is called News Corp)

NewsCorp is the parent company that owns these businesses

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Sky News hasn’t changed. There are regulations meaning TV news must be duly impartial and accurate, so there was little prospect of the slagging matches going on on Fox News and MSNBC in the US. Sky has always been a respectable news service.

[–] Fingolfinz@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As an American, please burn that shit to the ground and don’t be like us. You don’t want this shit.

[–] pezhore@infosec.pub 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

100% this. We laughed at Fox News and Papa Bear O'Reilly back in the fucking early 2000's, and thought that nobody would listen to blatantly ragebait lies. We were wrong.

Conservative media is a goddamned cancer and you all in the UK need to do whatever you can to stop it.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

We laughed at Fox News and Papa Bear O'Reilly back in the fucking early 2000's

No, we didn't - we panicked and screamed to not let this happen as soon as it launched in the mid 90's. We kept screaming as they mutated the republican party into Newt's Army and then into the TEA party and a constant cheerleader for unnecessary wars and on and on and on.

It was never funny, although to be fair - Colbert made solid gold out of their shit.

[–] sunglocto@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Practically everyone I know here treats GB News as a joke. Nobody who is worth your time is listening to that cesspit

[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They are though. My mum puts it on in the background when she can't find anything else to watch because she likes the high energy of the "debate". She's not right wing, but she does enjoy background chatter

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's how it works though. Background noise that seeps into your brain. I've seen it first hand. He'll go to any old folks home in America. They absorb Fox through osmosis.

[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 2 points 1 day ago

I'm in worried agreement

[–] Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

You can acknowledge some are though correct? Which is indeed the problem.

[–] ReCursing@feddit.uk 7 points 1 day ago

Yes that's the point of it

[–] IcyToes@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I think many see it as a joke here. Not many take it seriously. It seems to have less influence than I thought it would. Probably will go broke one day when viewership doesn't pick up.

[–] Schal330@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

My parents, and my partner's parents and aunts and uncles all watch GB News. They seem to think that it's "the immigrants" that are causing all their woes even though most of them are now retired or close to retiring.

Gen X, Millennials, and Zoomers aren't the target demographic for GB News I suspect. I do hope it isn't going to sway the country to voting in Reform in the future.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Don't dismiss it. It is pervasive propaganda that will achieve critical mass at some point and result in - well, it's hard to imagine a bigger fuckup that Brexit, but a bigger fuckup than Brexit. Something like trump.

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago

The difference with GB News is that it’s a channel run on the basis of pure hatred, as it’s funded by Paul Marshall, owner of UnHerd and The Spectator, with little regard to viable business.

It was going to be a regular news channel until his son Winston (formerly of the “music” group Mumford & Sons) went on a BBC political debate show and was publicly mocked for his clueless weird opinions. So in revenge Marshall radicalised GB News and turned it into electronic daycare for the swivel-eyed loon.

[–] klu9@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

TV in the UK has a substantially different regulatory framework and environment to the US and some other countries.

That's why even when Sky News (UK) was Murdoch-owned, it was a respected news source; it was the prestige loss leader he used to help get the rest of Sky regulator-approval. Compare to Sky News Australia; same name but full-on swivel-eyed Fox News-style bollocks.

At least for now, I believe it's easier to keep this sort of thing in check (on TV; the papers, oof!) in the UK. But people have to stay vigilant and make sure regulators know folks are keeping an eye on both them and the likes of GB News.

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This regulatory regime has been challenged by GB News which has been repeatedly allowed to push up to and sometimes across the regulatory line. In fact I think it’s the most fined channel in history except for Talking Pictures, yet its licence hasn’t been revoked.

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

GameBoy News? Do they use Gameboy Cameras?