British TV presenter gets caught out by the oldest prank in the book
It's been a rocky 72 hours for GB News, a newly-launched UK channel that dubs itself "Britain's news channel" and has vowed "not to be another echo chamber for the metropolitan mindset."
Launching just a few days ago on Sunday, former BBC presenter Andrew Neil's opinion news venture has already seen a loss of advertising from companies like IKEA, which said its content wasn't in line with their values, as well as a withdrawal from brands like Octopus Energy and Kopparberg — and now, just to make matters worse, it's getting hit with prank commenters.
Take Tuesday's "What Matters to You?" segment from presenter Michelle Dewberry, for instance. As seen in the video posted to Twitter by Ian Pinnell, Dewberry was in the process of reading comments that had been sent in by viewers when she stumbled across one from someone named, um, "Mike Hunt".
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Oh dear.
On the one hand, there's always the slim chance that a real person named Mike Hunt genuinely wanted to ring up and share their thoughts about children's toys. But as others were quick to point out, the name "Mike Hunt" is also well known in broadcast journalism circles as an instant red flag.
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It's also worth pointing out that earlier the very same day, in a segment from presenter Alex Phillips posted to Twitter by Andy Hutt, the channel received feedback from someone named "Mike Oxlong".
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While people appear to be gleefully lining up to troll the channel, it's worth noting that there's a lot of real criticism out there about its contents, too — including a recent segment in which presenter Dan Whooton railed against the UK's recent lockdown extension, and an interview in which Sir Alan Sugar reportedly said "I don't believe her" of Meghan Markle's recent statements to Oprah Winfrey about her experiences of mental health and the Royal Family.
