SAT . Sky News platforming a migrant sex offender explains why GB News is winning – Peter Bleksley
“I will not be censored.” I wrote these words in a rather terse text message to a Sky News producer on Sunday.
Sky had approached me to comment on air about the story of an illegal immigrant and convicted predatory paedophile, Hadush Kebatu, who had been negligently and mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford two days earlier.
I gave Sky News my thoughts on the manhunt and went about my business as I had a couple of hours to kill before it was time for me to appear on their channel.
Not long before it was time for me to contribute to Sky News, the producer rang me again. She told me that Kebatu had been captured, and therefore, quite understandably, she wanted my views on this huge development.
One of the matters that she was keen to quiz me about was the likelihood of this type of ludicrous situation ever arising again in the future.
I hurriedly replied: “Probably so, because of the never-ending stream of migrants coming to the UK, and the appalling state of our Criminal Justice System.”
The producer swiftly messaged me back, saying: “Maybe don’t say, ‘never ending stream’, but increased flow.” I did my nut.
In all the years I’ve been giving live interviews on radio and TV, no producer has ever tried to control what I say. I snappily responded, ‘I will not be censored. May I suggest you get another contributor’.
Sky News platforming a migrant sex offender explains why GB News is winning – Peter Bleksley|
SKY NEWS
As far as I was concerned, that was the end of the matter, and to be honest, I was rather pleased because I could open a bottle of red to enjoy with our Sunday roast.
In recent times, I’ve watched Sky News increasingly become a mouthpiece for our appalling Labour Government. When Keir Starmer was recently forced into a very unplanned cabinet reshuffle, following the loss of Angela Raynor due to her dodgy tax affairs, Sky’s political editor, Beth Rigby, described the reshuffle as ‘elegant’, which is a bit like describing Jack the Ripper’s murderous work as creative.
To my surprise, the Sky News producer was not taking no as an answer and begged me not to ditch my appearance.
Shortly afterwards, I was sitting in our box-bedroom, which serves as my office, dressed as always for media interviews in a collar and tie. Standards matter, even on a Sunday lunchtime.
After joining Sky’s Zoom meeting – the system through which I would appear on the telly – I had to watch their output for about ten minutes before it would be my turn.
Another former detective, who had left policing far more recently than I, was effectively providing chapter and verse on the manhunt and the capture, and I was sitting there thinking that I was surplus to requirements.
With all the policing notes having been expertly hit by the previous contributor, I was flabbergasted when, live on air, the presenter started asking me almost identical questions to those he’d posed to the other ex-cop just a few minutes earlier.
Whenever I tried to prevent my interview from being a carbon copy of what had gone before, and steer it towards the responsibility and culpability of Government ministers like Justice Secretary David Lammy, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, and Prisons Minister Lord Timpson, the presenter hurriedly tried to change the direction of travel.
No doubt he had a director barking down his earpiece, but for the first time in a very long time, I sat there hoping for this shambolic car-crash of an interview to end.
Eventually it did, and I lamented to myself how far Sky News had fallen from what was once an important channel, to what is today, namely a pale and censorial imitation of its old self.
I didn’t think my opinion of Sky News could fall much further, but it didn’t take long for it to plummet to previously uncharted depths. They had the audacity to interview Kebatu not long after he’d arrived in Ethiopia, following his deportation from the UK.
I can think of no public interest issue or other justification whatsoever in giving this revolting sex offender, who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman, a platform to spew his largely unchallenged tripe.
I can only imagine the further distress this might add to the anguish already being felt by Kebatu’s victims, but for Sky News, it now appears that barrel scraping is regarded as a legitimate tactic, as they try to reverse their tumbling viewing figures.
GBNEWS, on the other hand, regularly outperforms Sky News on the numbers front, and I can say with absolute confidence that they will never try to clip my wings. They really are the channel of fearless free speech.
