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GB News has been accused of downplaying or avoiding analysing the hundreds of mentions of President Donald in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Media reform campaigners’ analysis of the right-wing channel’s output suggests its pundits and presenters have generally presented the Epstein allegations as a distraction, or a non-issue for the US President over recent days.
In recent days commentary on the channel about the story has ranged from “completely dismissing it to outright ignoring it,” campaign group Stop Funding Hate has claimed.
That includes not mentioning the story on the day of the release in peak viewing hours (between 6:30am and 10pm), and the same the day after – when it was receiving blanket coverage from other broadcasters.
Of the 1,500 mentions of Donald Trump in the latest cache of Epstein documents released by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, several have raised questions about how much the President knew of his late friend’s sexual crimes. The President has denied all wrongdoing and said he cut off his relationship with Epstein long before becoming aware of any crimes.
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But in an email from Epstein in 2011, the deceased paedophile describes the US President as the “dog that hasn’t barked” and claims Trump had “spent hours” at his home with one of Epstein’s victims.
In another, Epstein said “of course” Trump “knew about the girls as he had asked Ghislaine to stop”, referring to Epstein’s long-time associate and girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, as the Guardian reported. The White House has insisted Trump was “not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever” and branded any supposed attempts to link Trump and Epstein as a “hoax” by the “liberal media.”
GB News has strongly echoed these narratives over the past week. In the days that followed the release, the channel’s commentators insisted there’s “no evidence” linking Donald Trump to the supposed “Epstein nonsense.”
We look through a sample of these broadcasts below.
Evening of Epstein-Trump revelations – 12th November US time
Late Show Live: Broadcast in the UK early AM on the 13th November.
GB News host Bev Turner asks: “What do you think ‘the dog that doesn’t bark’ means?”
Greg Swenson (Chairman of Republicans Overseas UK) replies: “Nothing to it….If there was anything in the Epstein files, they would have come out in October 2024. You know, as you said, that they tried everything else. They, you know, fabricated a lot of lawfare against the President.”
Turner hits out at The Guardian’s reporting: “The Guardian [reports] ‘He knew all about the girls. Epstein messages pile pressure on Trump’. That is The Guardian’s interpretation. Probably not a coincidence that they’re running this on the week that the BBC is at war with Donald Trump.”
The BBC’s supposed ‘war with Donald Trump’ was in fact two of the most senior BBC figures resigning and the corporation apologising for a clumsy edit of a Donald Trump speech, broadcast over a year ago – followed by belated threats by the President to sue the BBC for between $1bn and $5bn dollars.
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Host Turner claims opponents are “weaponising” the emails: “Donald Trump and the White House were totally unflustered today by the latest Jeffrey Epstein emails in which the deceased peadophile and Ghislaine Maxwell mentioned Trump. This hasn’t stopped his political opponents of course continuing to weaponise these emails.”
Turner parrots the White House line: “So, as [White House spokesperson] Karoline Leavitt said, this is just a distraction. We’ve got more important things to talk about”
Then between 06:30 and 22:30 (UK time) on the 13th, the day after the revelations, GB News did not talk about the story at all, according to Stop Funding Hate’s monitoring.
Following that, between 22:30 and midnight, the broadcaster mentioned it when reading the newspaper headlines for the next day. Then Epstein discussions resumed at midnight for the return of the US-based show Late Show Live.
Late Show Live, 13th November
Broadcast in the UK early AM on the 14th November.
This show covered Epstein’s connections to Trump, but host Ben Leo was clear in his views: “I’ve looked at these emails in some depth over the past couple of days, hours actually today even, and I have to agree with them [the White House], there’s nothing in there…the only content in there actually backs President Trump up.”
When Israeli-American documentary filmmaker Daphne Barak says she saw Donald Trump recently at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Leo points out that Trump’s golf course has recently won the prize for “best golf course in the world, so something to celebrate amid the Epstein nonsense.”
Shortly after, Leo adds: “Look, I don’t know why people don’t get it in their heads. Maybe I’m wrong, but I just think logically. Surely, if there was something on President Trump, it would have come out by now. Now, secondly, Trump kicked Epstein out of his club back in the day for being a creep.”
Don’t miss a story
There are still thousands of Epstein documents still to be released. Donald Trump has now caved to pressure – including from Republicans – to release the Epstein files in full within 30 days.
Leo asks a Democrat strategist on the panel, Joel Rubin: “One more email out tonight from Epstein [says] Trump never had a massage. So what more do people want?” Rubin responds that the situation is a “crisis of the President’s own making.”
Leo goes on to say Epstein was a “highly networked guy” and “I’d say more people than not met him [Epstein] and they weren’t wronguns, they weren’t paedos.”
Guest Nile Gardiner, a director at the right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation, claimed the emails were “all hearsay” and argued there was “zero evidence whatsoever linking President Trump to the crimes committed by Epstein”. He argued criticism of Donald Trump over the issue “smacks of real desperation.” “It’s the latest political campaign by sinking Democrats, frankly.”
In the same show, Ben Leo repeats his suggestion that anything on Trump would have already come out by now, saying: “Surely, if there was anything, if there was a smoking gun about Trump and Epstein, it would have come out by now. Just use your head logically.”
After the Late Show Live ended at 2am UK time, GB News did not mention the story until 22:00pm, when running through the headlines.
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The Trump Interview, 14th November
Late Show Live: Broadcast in the UK early AM on the 15th November.
The whole show was dedicated to GB News‘ interview with the President, where Turner praised Donald Trump for being a “really good dad” and saying he had “great courage.”
“You have proven that leaders don’t just have to sit around, you’ve had phenomenal success with solving conflicts. So how have you done it? Is it about your team, your vision, your drive?” the presenter asks.
“I’m a big fan of the National Guard,” Turner also tells Donald Trump in the interview, praising troops’ controversial presence on the streets after the President sent the National Guard into Democrat areas.
At one point she tells the PM she “loved” a “brilliant” recent speech by the President.
In the interview, Turner often went out of her way to praise Donald Trump, saying: “the pace of change here is remarkable. I almost don’t know what you’re going to do for the next few years. You’ve done so much in such a short space of time.”
She claims “It feels much safer here” in the US compared to her native UK, despite the murder rate in the US being at least four times higher than the UK as a whole.
And Turner claimed Donald Trump’s bulldozing of a White House wing to make a ballroom was “brilliant.”
Stop Funding Hate described the interview as “fawning” and “sycophantic”.
Richard Wilson, founder of Stop Funding Hate, told Byline Times: “This toxic channel’s fawning over Trump gives us a glimpse of what to expect if the BBC’s enemies succeed in remaking the British media in their own image. Real journalism challenges power rather than pandering to it, and champions the powerless rather than punching down.”
GB News co-owner Sir Paul Marshall is reportedly considering purchasing The Telegraph newspaper, to add to his ownership of the Conservative ‘bible’, the Spectator. Marshall recently called on Trump’s America to “save Britain”.
GB News was contacted for comment but did not respond.
Got a story? Get in touch in confidence on josiah@bylinetimes.com
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