Time for Sky to get its head out of the clouds

A GB News presenter, Josh Howie, compared the LGBTQ+ community to paedophiles live on air.

In an episode of Headliners, which aired on the channel on 22 January, Howie discussed the recent sermon that the Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Buddle, gave at a service attended by President Donald Trump.

Buddle urged Trump to “have mercy” on immigrants and LGBTQ+ children “who fear for their lives”. Howie went on to say that the Bishop’s church “talks about the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons. I just want to say that includes pedos". 

Following outrage to his comments, he began claiming that he was only joking and that he was being "misrepresented". He then appeared to double down in a post on X by saying he “made a joke about paedophilia in the church (bit hack), connecting it to the wrong ‘uns in the +” and later in the clarification again reiterating that he was talking about the “+ end of the scale”. To mean the ‘+’ at the end of the LGBTQ initialisation.

The ‘+’ does not include paedophiles, obviously. This is a far-right conspiracy theory and one of the oldest and most pernicious lies told about the LGBTQ+ community. It was used as a slur against gay men for decades and is now creeping back in as a catch-all against queer and trans people. The ‘+’ represents many sexual orientations and gender identities and other parts of the community that are not covered in this shortened initialisation, like Asexual people. It also includes Intersex people who have natural diversity in their sex characteristics.

On 18 February, nonprofit campaign organisation, Good Law Project, delivered to Ofcom more than 70,000 complaints it had collected. Speaking with me, Good Law Project’s Jo Maugham said he feels this is a “real test of whether Ofcom is serious about hate speech."

An Ofcom spokesperson told me on 21 February that they were “carefully assessing” the 1,347 complaints Ofcom has received directly via the “official complaints process” before deciding whether to investigate. They confirmed it received 71,851 directly gathered by the Good Law Project.

The complaints pertained to sections 2.1, 2.3, which relate to "harmful and/or offensive material", and section 3.2 of Ofcom’s code, which relates to "hatred and abuse". 

This could make it the most complained about broadcast in Ofcom history.

Ofcom clarified that the number of complaints it receives about programmes “does not determine whether we’ll investigate”.

While GB News declined to provide comment to Campaign, a GB News spokesman did respond to the BBC where they say the Good Law Project is engaged in "a deliberate and orchestrated campaign" and that they "misrepresent the programme”. They encouraged people to watch the programme in its entirety. They added: "GB News chooses to be regulated by Ofcom and takes its regulatory and compliance obligations very seriously."

GB News recently won its judicial review of the initial ruling made by Ofcom in 2023. I can't help but wonder if Ofcom might be bruised from that experience.

Hate crime is sky-rocketing

Stop Funding Hate’s mission is to advance human rights by making this kind of blasé hate speech unprofitable. It’s been particularly successful in its campaign to draw advertisers’ attention to the output of GB News, as GB News’ CEO, Angelos Frangopoulos, noted back in The Telegraph in 2022. The opinion channel has even taken to complaining on-air about being unable to attract advertisers as a result of the pressure. Michelle Dewberry back in 2023 and Howie himself discussed this on his show in late January stating that “there are many [advertisers] who still shun us”.

Soon after GB News launched in 2021, it was accused by one of its own contributors, India Willoughby, of “demonising trans people at every opportunity”. The channel has been called out by the Board of Deputies of British Jews for platforming “organisations that promote antisemitic conspiracy theories”. And the Muslim Council of Britain has said that “GB News has an excessive, almost obsessive, focus on Muslims and regularly demonises their beliefs and practices.”

Stop Funding Hate director Richard Wilson tells me this matters because “hate in our media fuels hate crime on our streets, and exacerbates prejudice within wider society”. The fact is that there has been a 503% rise in LGBT hate crimes in England and Wales since 2011. Last year alone, at least 350 trans+ people were murdered globally in what TGEU calls a “significant increase”. I wrote about our industry’s complicity in this problem immediately following the murder of Brianna Ghey, a trans girl who was murdered two years ago last month. I wrote about our industry’s current silence around the problem in January.

Wilson tells me it’s also vital we get a grip on this because when a minority is successfully demonised in the media it can “ultimately lay the groundwork for hostile policies stripping away people’s basic human rights”. We’re now seeing this unfold at alarming speed under President Trump and his right-hand raising rocket man, Elon Musk.

The UK is not immune to this effect. A new YouGov study released in February shows an increased scepticism towards transgender rights across the board. In 2023, in the UK, there were 6,522 stories relating to trans+ people in mainstream titles. That's almost 18 stories a day with a majority having negative framing. This is a 34-fold increase over 10 years, laying the groundwork for rollbacks at home. 

In this environment, the UK government has banned puberty blockers indefinitely for trans youth. And reports in The Times, The Daily Mail and The Guardian last month said that rumours were circulating over the Labour government plans to drop their pledge to make self-ID easier – all in an attempt to stem potential losses to Reform UK.

Later in February, the NHS announced plans to start offering puberty blockers as part of a £10.7 million clinical trial, while cis children continue to retain access to this medication to treat precocious puberty.

Sky must act to end the harm

Both Stop Funding Hate and Good Law Project believe we need to look to Sky. It is both a significant advertiser on GB News and the organisation that sells the ad space on the channel’s behalf.

In its 2024 Pride campaign, Sky paraded around their so-called commitment to “LGBTQ+ stories” and preached about the importance of how we “show up for one another”. Yet when it actually matters, when the LGBTQ+ community is under relentless attack, it is nowhere to be found. This isn’t allyship. It’s hollow, performative nonsense.

Maugham tells me: “Sky can continue to fund GB News to perpetuate dangerous lies about the LGBT+ community or it can claim to value those communities. But it can't do both.”

While Wilson wants advertisers to stop advertising on GB News, their advice is to check that you’re not already showing up there without realising it. He also recommends looking beyond the channel to other media owners with similar dehumanising rhetoric.

Sky declined to comment for this column, but a Sky insider told me it is “common practice” across the industry for the majority of TV advertising to be “bought and targeted to agreed audiences, not specific channels”, and that “advertising delivery for a brand campaign is spread across the entire portfolio”. I believe in better. It is my view that this status quo has to go if it leads to outcomes like this.

The newly released Advocacy Playbook by LGBTQ+ industry advocacy organisation Outvertising, promises to guide advertisers to make better decisions. It has a particular focus on encouraging advertisers to reform media strategy to align with their professed values.

Sky launched their Sky Glass gen 2 in February, which promises an immersive experience. So, the next time GB News calls you a “paedo”, it’ll be in 360° cinema sound with crystal clear mock patriotic colours. Unless, of course, both Sky and Ofcom act responsibly to end the harm.

Can someone please put the Advocacy Playbook in the hands of Sky CEO Dana Strong?

Marty Davies (she/they) is a cultural strategist, activist and writer. She founded creative strategy consultancy Smarty Pants Consultancy which helps brands to connect meaningfully with queer culture. She also founded Trans+ History Week CIC and co-founded community group Trans+ Adland, which both support the Trans+ community to thrive in the creative industries. In 2024 her column was shortlisted for PPA Columnist of the Year.

A spokesperson for Ofcom said: “We’ve received 1,347 complaints in total about GB News' Headliners on 22 Jan following comments made by Josh Howie. We're carefully assessing these and the content before we decide whether to investigate. It's important to clarify that our audience complaints figures reflect individual complaints made directly to us via our official complaints process. In addition to these complaints submitted directly to Ofcom, the Good Law Project also provided 71,851 complaints it had gathered to Ofcom. The number of complaints we receive about a programme does not determine whether we will investigate.”

Sky and GB News declined to comment.