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Welsh broadcaster Guto Harri quits GB News following taking the knee row

19 Jul 2021 2 minute read
Guto Harri taking the knee. Picture by GB News

Welsh broadcaster Guto Harri has quit GB News following a row about taking the knee.

He was suspended by the ‘anti woke’ channel for taking the knee during a discussion about racism towards England’s black footballers.

Last week, GB News apologised after the journalist, and former press chief to Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London, made the gesture, which it said breached its standards.

Harri hit back in a column for The Sunday Times, in which he called the channel an “absurd parody” that is pandering to the far right, adding that he faced a “tsunami of disappointment, resentment and hate” after his on-air gesture had offended the “lynch mob”.

In his resignation letter to GB News chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos, which was obtained by The Independent, Harri explains his reasons for quitting.

‘Discussed’ 

It says: “Before I took the knee on air I discussed it with my producer, director, co-presenters and head of newsroom.

“After I did it, GB News captured the moment and proactively cascaded it on social media.

“Two days later you told me you wanted me to take a break for the summer. You did not say you were briefing papers and issuing a statement that accused me of breaching your editorial standards.

“I asked you to change that on the night – pointing out it was defamatory. You ignored my texts and refused to take my calls.

In a Sunday Times column, he says: “I joined, part-time but with an ongoing commitment because I liked and trusted those in charge and supported the broad vision.

“But the channel is rapidly becoming an absurd parody of what it proclaimed to be. Rather than defending free speech and confronting cancel culture, it has set out to replicate it on the far right.”


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Mark
Mark
3 years ago

talk about damage limitation, Guto Harri, the only journalist in the UK who didn’t realise GB News was/is a far-right echo chamber

Chris
Chris
3 years ago

So he was suspended, sacked and quit.
It’s getting hard to follow the spin on this one now.
A pox on all their houses! I’m out

Alan Reilly
Alan Reilly
3 years ago

Would it not be better to ignore GB News altogether? People who sat at the back in school will continue to watch it, those of us who managed to progress beyond key stage one, won’t. It’s really not worth all this attention.

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