Specsavers pandering to woke mob by pulling GB News advertising
ANYONE who cares about freedom of speech and the diversity of our British media should be deeply disturbed by the attempt to ‘cancel’ GB News, the refreshing new television channel fronted by the BBC’s former heavyweight political presenter Andrew Neil. Particularly saddening for Bailiwick viewers such as myself is the revelation that the locally based Specsavers group has pandered to the prejudices of the woke mob by withdrawing its advertising from the fledgling broadcaster – without giving it a chance to show itself and despite its highly impressive early viewer ratings. I cannot imagine that Dame Mary Perkins and her husband Doug, as fair minded individuals, were party to this lamentable decision, preferring to believe that it was more the idea of an ill-informed and reactionary advertising executive who did not stop to research the true nature of the sinister organisation behind the boycott, Stop Funding Hate. A far more honest and appropriate name would be ‘Stop Funding the Firms and Organisations and People WE Hate’. For the people behind this censorship campaign (and others) are intolerant extremists who cannot abide those with views that run counter to their own. Or, as Mr Neil himself more succinctly described them, they are ‘bigots bent on censorship’. Speaking to his GB News viewers a few days ago, the former Sunday Times political editor and undoubted titan of modern day British broadcasting had this message for the firms, including Specsavers, that have capitulated so cravenly to the cancel culture rabble rousers. ‘They have all taken the knee to Stop Funding Hate. It is important they – and you – realise to whom they are in thrall. Stop Funding Hate does not stand for a liberal, inclusive society. It is dominated by far-left agitators and cranks that push for advertiser boycotts of any media organisation with which it disagrees.’ Mr Neil also observed that it was ‘quite remarkable that serious executives and well established companies can be so easily cowed’. Perhaps the decision makers at Specsavers will take a few moments now to remove their woke-tinted glasses, look hard through an untainted lens into the real world, and use their optometrist’s torch to shine a light on the cancel culture bigots who are hell bent on promoting their destructive and divisive politics of censorship. When those in Specsavers’ boardroom at La Villiaze next consider their ill-judged move to withdraw advertising from GB News, perhaps they will take heed also of this warning from Mr Neil, which perfectly sums up my own position as a viewer and a consumer: ‘GB News viewers are incensed with advertisers who’ve taken against us. Many have written to tell them so. And their numbers are growing... add our audience, friends, allies and sympathisers together and we can muster millions of supporters. Not a good idea to be on the wrong end of them.’ In the meantime, the rather myopic leaders at Specsavers could take a few hours out to watch GB News and judge for themselves. What they will find is a proud British news service – free, fair and largely impartial, and perhaps most importantly, liberated from the shackles of wokedom that have so seriously impaired our official national broadcaster. Granted, the set of the new channel looks a little wonky at times and there have been obvious teething problems, especially on the technical side, but the notion that Mr Neil and his team are somehow disseminators of hatred is so wide of the mark that it is simply laughable.
M. J. TOLCHER
La Grande Maison de Bordeaux,
Vale
Editor’s footnote: A spokeswoman for Specsavers responded:
Thank you for allowing us the right to reply, we are so sorry for the concern that this has caused the author of this letter and any other islanders. As a health care provider, Specsavers believes that everyone should be able to access information about eye and hearing care, so we adopt an inclusive approach to our advertising. This means that, as long as they operate within the bounds of regulatory compliance, we advertise in a variety of media outlets, which hold a range of mixed editorial policies and political stances. We believe in freedom of the press and in our customers’ rights to choose where they obtain their news. In this instance our TV advertisements were run without our knowledge on a new channel – GB News – as part of a media package we have with Sky. Usually, we would wait while a new channel establishes itself before committing advertising spend. That is why we have paused our ads while we review this with our media buying agency, which we would expect to complete within the next few weeks when the channel’s viewing figures are available to us. It is no reflection on the channel content itself, on which we do not have an opinion, nor is it a deliberate ‘boycotting’ of or a response to any pressure from activist groups.
Thank you again for bringing this matter to our attention. We are always looking for ways to provide better customer care and your feedback is an invaluable part of that process. We pride ourselves on providing eye and ear care for everyone and hope very much that the author of this letter will reconsider their opinion of us now that they are in receipt of the full facts.