GB News could be about to set a new record for most Ofcom complaints against a single programme after an online complaint set up by the Good Law Project over “paedos” comments, apparently levelled at the LGBTQ+ community by host Josh Howie, cleared 63,000 signatories today.
The online complaints collated by The Good Law Project will be handed in to Ofcom’s London head office by the Good Law Project in person on Monday 17 February.
This is in addition to the 1,227 individual complaints about the episode of the Headliners show already made to the broadcasting watchdog, which Ofcom has said it is “carefully assessing.”
During the episode of Headliners, which aired on January 22, the hosts were discussing a sermon given by US episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde, at a service attended by Donald Trump. During the sermon, the bishop implored the newly-inaugurated US President “to have mercy” on gay, lesbian and transgender children “who fear for their lives.”
Howie then read a statement issued by the bishop’s church which backs “the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons,” and suggested that “that includes paedos, if you’re doing the full inclusion there.”
Howie has since said that his comment was intended as a “joke about paedophilia in the church,” emphasising this point in a lengthy post on Twitter which also noted that the show is intended as “a comedy show. Where three comedians make jokes as we review the next day’s newspapers,” and that the three comedians on that day’s show came from “across the political spectrum.”
If Ofcom recognises the complaints, it could mark the highest number of complaints ever submitted to Ofcom about a single programme.
However, the watchdog told BBC News that its audience complaints figures only “reflect individual complaints made directly [to Ofcom] via our official complaints process,” suggesting that the complaints gathered for the online version may not be counted in the same way.
An Ofcom spokeswoman told the BBC earlier today: “We are aware of an online petition about this programme and will look closely at this once received. The number of signatories to this petition will be noted in our Broadcast Bulletin, once we have made our decision.
“We consider each and every complaint made to us carefully, but the number of complaints about a programme does not determine whether we will investigate.”
The current official record of 58,000 complaints concerned comments about Meghan Markle made by Piers Morgan, on Good Morning Britain in 2021. ITV was ultimately cleared by Ofcom, which rejected the complaints.
The Good Law Project argues that GB News violated Ofcom’s code, which states broadcasters must protect the public from harmful and offensive material.
It stated:
“GB News is no stranger to spouting hatred and toxic lies. They take pride in it, and pretend the rules don’t matter. But they do. And they must be enforced.
“On 22 January, Josh Howie, one of their presenters, repeated a dangerous homophobic slur that links the LGBTQ+ community to paedophilia.
“It’s clearly illegal to stir up hatred by broadcasting a poisonous myth. Like GB News, Howie thinks he’s above the law. But he’s wrong. And we’re going to show him how.
“Together, we will send the media regulator Ofcom thousands of complaints, forcing them to take action.
“Ofcom allows 20 working days to present a complaint, so the clock is ticking. We only have a week to gather as many complaints as we can, and on Monday 17 February, we’ll take them straight to Ofcom’s door. Will you join us?”
GB News, whose commercial operations are based in Manchester, is no stranger to Ofcom. In October 2023 at least 13 complaints about the broadcaster were under Ofcom investigation simultaneously, while the watchdog said during last year’s General Election campaign it would consider “statutory sanctions” against the broadcaster over the uncontested platform given to then-sitting PM Rishi Sunak at its Darlington ‘People’s Forum.’
