GB News: Ofcom says broadcaster broke rules with ‘misleading’ Covid-19 comments | TalkTV – TalkTV
GB News host Mark Steyn breached broadcasting codes by incorrectly claiming there was a link between the Covid vaccine and higher death rates, Ofcom has ruled.
The TV regulator said Mr Steyn made “potentially harmful and materially misleading” claims about Covid-19 vaccines.
Mr Steyn, who has since left GB News, spoke about “only one conclusion” from official data, about the third jab’s “significantly greater risk” of “infection, hospitalisation and death”.
Ofcom said that was wrong and “may have resulted in viewers making important decisions about their own health”.
In response to the ruling, a spokesperson for GB News said they were “disappointed”.
They added: “Our role in media is to ask tough questions, point out inconsistencies in government policy, and hold public bodies to account when the facts justify it. Mark Steyn’s programme did exactly that.
“We support his right to challenge the status quo by examining the small but evident risks of the third Covid booster. Mr Steyn looked at evidence from the government’s own health data. He drew a reasonable conclusion from the facts. However, he drew only one conclusion.”
Ofcom said the episode in question, which aired on April 21 2022, saw the Canadian presenter “incorrectly claim” that UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data provided evidence of a “definitive causal link” between a third Covid-19 vaccine and higher rates of infection, death and people being admitted to hospital.
Mr Steyn was a presenter at the channel until earlier this year when he left amid a dispute over contract terms he claimed could have made him personally liable for Ofcom fines.
His programme also faces a second ongoing Ofcom investigation into comments made by a guest, author and journalist Naomi Wolf, about the vaccine on October 4.
This is GB News’s first breach of Ofcom’s broadcasting rules since it launched in June 2021. So far there have been 3,432 complaints about the channel – about 3% of all broadcast complaints made to Ofcom during this period.
