The prime-time GB News host Mark Steyn will not be returning to the channel. This afternoon he released a video on his website that called the channel’s chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos a “habitual liar”. Steyn called another GB News employee “Ofcom’s bitch”.
Steyn has not been on air at the channel since mid-December after he suffered two heart attacks. Fellow GB News host Dan Wootton supported Steyn at the time, tweeting: “Sending love and prayers to Mark Steyn today. We need you back on GB News soon.”
Wootton may be waiting some time. In his video today, Steyn claimed that GB News had sent him a new contract while he recovered from his illness. “I was all set to return to GB News,” said Steyn, “but the habitual liar who runs the joint decided that we needed a defibrillator in the studio for me to be able to go back.”
Steyn had more trouble than sourcing a defibrillator though. “He [Frangopoulos] has chosen to change the terms by which we do the show… There’s this new clause, ‘editorial responsibility’.”
The new clause would make Steyn personally liable for any Ofcom fines given out due to the show’s output. As Steyn ranted about the contract, he described Frangopoulos as a “homocidal maniac intent on bringing about a third fatal heart attack”.
Reports suggest that Steyn was given a deadline to sign the new deal, which has now passed.
Presenting duties could pass to another pillar of the broadcasting establishment, Laurence “Lozza” Fox. The Chatterer believes David Icke might be available to fill the 8-9pm slot most week nights if Fox is unavailable.
Ofcom is currently investigating an episode of The Mark Steyn Show that was broadcast last October.
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