Editor slams SFH “zealots”
John Wilson (The Hereford Times) Andrew Neil (GB News)
Differing views have been aired by regional journalists over the ongoing boycott of fledgling TV channel GB News by leading advertisers after a minister suggested their actions amounted to an attack on freedom of speech. Around 11 advertisers are now confirmed to have suspended their marketing campaigns on the new channel, recently launched by ex-BBC veteran Andrew Neil, who says advertisers have bowed to pressure from the fringe group Stop Funding Hate (SFH), which, he says, is composed of “far-left agitators and cranks that push for advertiser boycotts of any media organisation with which it disagrees.”
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden called the boycott “worrying,” arguing that the new channel is a “welcome addition” to the diversity of the UK media, saying that one of the cornerstones of our liberties is our robust, free and diverse media.”
Media website Hold the Front Page reports that Paul Wiltshire, senior lecturer in journalism at the University of Gloucestershire, who was formerly deputy editor of the Bath Chronicle, commented: “I don’t care whether brands advertise on GB News or not, but surely ‘one of the cornerstones of our liberties’ is that companies can choose how and where to spend their money?” While Marc Reeves, Reach plc’s marketplace publisher for the Midlands, said: “Much as I would like the revenues, there is no law that obliges privately owned companies to advertise on specific platforms. How does exercising their freedom of choice over where they advertise impinge on anyone’s freedom of speech?”
However, John Wilson (pictured), who edits the Hereford Times, has condemned the advertisers’ actions as “odious and undemocratic.” In a column published in his newspaper, John wrote: “As a state broadcaster the BBC is in the privileged position of getting a guaranteed income from the licence-payer. But others, such as newspapers, websites and independent broadcasters, earn their keep from a variety of sources. Chiefly, though, it comes from advertising.
“And that is something a movement called Stop Funding Hate has identified as a weakness it can exploit. These campaigners, to put it bluntly, want to silence those publishers whose output offends them. They do so by pressurising firms who advertise with them, seeking to choke off their very lifeblood.
“To date, tabloid newspapers have been the main target of SFH. But now GB News, the new right-leaning 24-hour news television channel, has fallen foul of these zealots. SFH is well-meaning but its tactics are dangerously misguided.
“By seeking to deny the right to free speech to those whose views it finds disagreeable it undermines one of our greatest freedoms, and gives succour to the advocates of censorship and oppressive regulation.
“Anyone who values free speech should be wary of the sanctimonious cheerleaders of Stop Funding Hate. Their attempts to stifle GB News within days of its launch are odious and undemocratic.”
Andrew Neil (pictured), writing on the GB News website, says: “The only hate this channel has broadcast was when we showed film of a BBC Newsnight reporter being attacked by a baying anti-lockdown mob. And we condemned that unreservedly.
“Yet a number of companies, some of them well-known brands, have decided to stop advertising on GB News. They’ve bowed to pressure from a fringe group called Stop Funding Hate, a misnomer if ever there was one. It is quite remarkable that serious executives and well-established companies can be so easily cowed. They have all taken the knee to Stop Funding Hate.
“SFH does not stand for a liberal, inclusive society. It is dominated by far-left agitators and cranks that push for advertiser boycotts of any media organisation with which it disagrees. Its default position is to smear anything it takes against as a peddler of hate. In GB News’s case, SFH started rounding up the lynch mob four months before we had even started broadcasting. So I don’t think we’re talking open minds here.
“If advertisers want to see real hate they should have a look at the social media postings of SFH’s supporters. They smear and threaten businesses and people who won’t do their bidding with words like “vile”, “scum”, “toxic” — and many more words we can’t repeat here. Yet through fear or ignorance some companies do as SFH bids.”
