A British advocacy group has said it will present more than 60,000 complaints to Ofcom about a GB News presenter’s suggestion that the LGBTQ+ community includes paedophiles.
Ofcom is already “carefully assessing” more than 1,000 complaints about the GB News Headliners show during which, discussing Mariann Budde’s sermon in which she quietly implored Donald Trump to have mercy on LGBTQ+ people, comedian Josh Howie said the community included paedophiles, “if you’re doing the full inclusion there.”
The Good Law Project has since posted an online petition that has attracted more than 60,000 complaints and says it will send the complaints to Ofcom on Monday – the last working day it has left to complain before the 20-day window elapses. Ofcom is under no obligation to probe any incident regardless of the number of complaints.
“GB News is no stranger to spouting hatred and toxic lies,” the petition reads. “They take pride in it, and pretend the rules don’t matter. It’s clearly illegal to stir up hatred by broadcasting a poisonous myth.”
Were Ofcom to take each complaint in turn, the plus-60,000 would be a record, beating the 55,000 who complained over Piers Morgan’s infamous Good Morning Britain rant, during which he questioned Meghan Markle’s claim that her time living with the royal family had left her feeling suicidal.
Howie clarified after his remarks to say his program is a comedy show and note that he “made a joke about padeophilia in the church.” He pointed out that the comedians on the show came from “across the political spectrum, all providing a different take on the story.”
GB News has repeatedly fallen foul of the Ofcom code and was fined £100,000 ($124,000) last year over its People’s Forum: The Prime Minister live show with Rishi Sunak, which its boss decried as a “direct attack on free speech and journalism.”
