Good Morning Britain - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Good Morning Britain (/showthread.php?tid=60)

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RE: Good Morning Britain - Spencer - 11-10-2023

The late Brian Walden springs to mind as an excellent interviewer of politicians of all colours, who showed no bias, despite having previously been a Labour MP. He was even reputed to have been Margaret Thatcher’s favourite political interviewer.

I didn’t see Ed Balls’ interview with Starmer, but providing he robustly challenged him as he would have with a Tory politician, I don’t think there’s a problem. Obviously if he gave him the soft-soap and told him what a wonderful job he was doing, then that’s certainly an issue.

All journalists have to put their own personal political views to one side, and I don’t think if someone is a former politician, it should necessarily be a problem. I guess it comes down to whether you’re doing your job properly or not.

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RE: Good Morning Britain - eyeTV - 11-10-2023

Why didn't Susanna interview Keir Starmer, that would at least be consistent with the Rishi Sunak interview last week?

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RE: Good Morning Britain - XIII - 11-10-2023

I don't have an issue with Ed interviewing Keir Starmer, he hasn't been an MP for eight years and indeed Starmer became an MP the same year Ed lost his seat.

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RE: Good Morning Britain - JK08 - 11-10-2023

(11-10-2023, 11:46 AM)eyeTV Wrote:  Why didn't Susanna interview Keir Starmer, that would at least be consistent with the Rishi Sunak interview last week?

Susanna was live from the CPC in Manchester last week. GMB, however, didn't send her to Liverpool, so both Susanna and Ed interviewed Starmer DTL from the studio in London.

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RE: Good Morning Britain - Stockland Hillman - 11-10-2023

(11-10-2023, 07:46 AM)DavidWhitfield Wrote:  GB News is rightly criticised here for its lack of balance - people with connections to the Conservative Party interviewing fellow Conservatives is never going to lead to a fair and balanced interview and it shouldn't happen. However, I must note that I would argue the same principle should apply on the other side of the political spectrum, too. I see that on this morning's GMB, Labour leader Keir Starmer is being interviewed by former Labour politician and Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls. I think, while everyone will undoubtedly have their own politics, impartiality is important in news coverage and any personal leanings or views should never be apparent, whether red, blue or anything in between.

GMB isn't a news programme, it's a mix of topical news discussion including political interviews,  mixed with news bulliten elements.  It has opinions spouted by presenters who also cover the news-like  guest interviews; notably with Piers  but continues to this day - Martin Lewis regularly advances his opinions on what Gov policy should be for benefits,  energy handouts and pricing rules. GMB has an ITV news branded ticker,  and often no separation between presenter led news discussion and news bulletin content reader.

So its structure is indistinguishable from GB News, which shows the issue Ofcom has in regulation.

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RE: Good Morning Britain - Humphrey Hacker - 12-10-2023

(11-10-2023, 12:21 PM)Stockland Hillman Wrote:  GMB isn't a news programme, it's a mix of topical news discussion including political interviews,  mixed with news bulliten elements.  It has opinions spouted by presenters who also cover the news-like  guest interviews; notably with Piers  but continues to this day - Martin Lewis regularly advances his opinions on what Gov policy should be for benefits,  energy handouts and pricing rules. GMB has an ITV news branded ticker,  and often no separation between presenter led news discussion and news bulletin content reader.

So its structure is indistinguishable from GB News, which shows the issue Ofcom has in regulation.

You make a good point. GMB's formula has given rise to some blurring of the line between what is "pure news" and opinion which does make me question what is the difference between GMB and GBN and why is OFCOM not coming down like a ton of bricks on GMB like its doing on GBN?

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RE: Good Morning Britain - Keith - 12-10-2023

(12-10-2023, 10:04 AM)Humphrey Hacker Wrote:  You make a good point. GMB's formula has given rise to some blurring of the line between what is "pure news" and opinion which does make me question what is the difference between GMB and GBN and why is OFCOM not coming down like a ton of bricks on GMB like its doing on GBN?

I think there's a few notable distinctions to be made when comparing GMB and GBN.

Firstly, Good Morning Britain is a three hour weekday programme on ITV1/STV, whereas GB News is a channel which has several programmes on it.

Secondly, as far as I'm aware Good Morning Britain isn't hosted by any current serving politicians, let alone having a current serving politician interview another current serving politician. By contrast some of GB News' programmes are hosted by current serving politicians, albeit some may be standing down at the next general election. Having one serving politician interview another gives rise to the accusations surround impartiality, especially when they're both on the same political party. Whilst Ed Balls does regularly present on GMB he hasn't been an MP since 2015.

One similarity both have (these days) is that they both have a separate newsreader, who reads the news summary/headlines. For GB News this allows them to claim that the news and 'opinion content' is clearly separated from the rest of the programmes. I imagine the same would apply for Good Morning Britain.

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RE: Good Morning Britain - JMT1985 - 12-10-2023

I remember back around 2019, when there was a debate on the BBC licence fee on GMB and Piers Morgan said he could say what he wants on GMB as the show is not publicly funded, unlike the BBC with their BBC Breakfast.

There seems to be a feeling that as long as you don't receive public funding, you can literally say what you want on TV, which I feel is what GB News thinks.

GB News suffices the OFCOM part of hourly (and also probably half hourly) basic news headlines, allowing the remaining 53 minutes of the hour to be pure opinion led programming.

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RE: Good Morning Britain - Brekkie - 12-10-2023

Seperation is the problem. Historically with British breakfast shows it's been clear what is the news content and what isn't - though with GMB the lines are blurred more with their pointless "debates", especially as they come from the news desk. With GB News though that seperation isn't there at all, despite what they may think.

Whilst it's good GMB isn't as sickly sofa-ery as GMTV was it probably wouldn't harm the show to be softened a bit more around the edges.

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RE: Good Morning Britain - Scrotnig - 12-10-2023

Ed Balls hasn’t been an MP for a long time. I don’t care for the bloke, but it’s absolutely fine for him to interview current Labour politicians. He has a new career as a tv presenter, that’s literally his job now.

The issue with GB News is their use of CURRENT members of parliament. It shouldn’t be happening, and I say that as someone who quite likes the channel.

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