Viewers have labelled GB News a “national shame” following an incident at Greenpeace’s headquarters in London.
After protesting outside Rishi Sunak’s home while he was on vacation in Disneyland, the channel’s editor Ben Leo and camera crews stormed the environmental activist group’s main office earlier this week.
After supporting a huge expansion of North Sea oil and gas production, campaigners draped hundreds of metres of ‘oily-black cloth’ over the prime minister’s Yorkshire house.
After storming into Greenpeace’s headquarters, Ben addressed a member of the organisation, who welcomed him with politeness and respect, giving him a seat and the chance to strike up a dialogue.
Instead, Ben wandered away till he came upon the protestor behind the act, which was intended to raise awareness of the dire climatic effects anticipated by experts by the PM’s pledge to’max out’ the North Sea.
She gamely came to a halt on the stairs and politely began answering his inquiries, but Ben cut her off and seemed more interested in proceeding to the kitchen to’make himself a cup of tea.’
Ben later barged into the office area, with the workers calmly ignoring him and carrying on with their tasks.
Later interviewing two Greenpeace execs and chastising them for invading a ‘private man’s’ home, one responded that he was, in fact, the prime minister, it was a ‘matter of national news’ he was away, they ‘knocked on the door first’ and it was a ‘peaceful’ protest.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, one social media user wrote: ‘Great work showcasing how diligent and respectful Greenpeace are. You’ve done a great job in giving them some good PR after a lot of bad press yesterday. Good on you guys.’
A viewer penned: ‘Full marks to Greenpeace who dealt with this with dignity and clarity,’ while another added: ‘Hi GB News: The function of journalism is to hold power to account – not to run around getting performatively offended on power’s behalf.
A fourth said: ‘This isn’t journalism. GB news is a national embarrassment.’
GB News is now the subject of many Ofcom investigations, the most recent of which declared that it will examine into their anti-cashless society campaign.
The media watchdog had earlier initiated another investigation against the nascent new channel on May 9 in relation to a State Of The Nation broadcast.
After Jacob Rees-Mogg aired a breaking news article regarding a civil trial judgement involving Donald Trump, 40 viewers complained.
An Ofcom spokesperson said: ‘We are investigating whether this programme broke our rules, which prevent politicians from acting as newsreaders, unless exceptionally, it is editorially justified.’
Earlier this year, Ofcom concluded that GB News violated its broadcasting regulations twice over statements made on the Mark Steyn Show concerning the Covid-19 vaccination.
Following the watchdog’s actions, the host resigned from GB News in February.
