Star presenter, Donald Trump interview and competition on display at BBC: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch launched a new UK TV channel on Monday, drawing on the ‘spirited debate’ already in the British media world to draw crowds .
Inaugurating the antenna, journalist Tom Newton Dunn, face and right shoulder forward, presented “TalkTV” as a “bold new channel”, in a visual dressing – blue dotted with yellow – and sharp. sound.
After a news program with fascinating topics – captured British troops in Ukraine, inclusive writing and Prince Andrew – the channel aired an interview with the former US president, conducted by presenter Piers Morgan, who is politically minded. Was known for his fiery rants aimed at being right.
A promotional video clip from the show, titled “Uncensored”, shows Donald Trump abruptly leaving the room after a heated exchange of words in the 2020 US presidential election, which he claimed was “stolen” from him. Had happened.
In a statement, the former chairman said Mr Morgan “illegally and deceptively tried to cut his long and exhausting interview”. “It will all be there,” replied the journalist, who characterized his show as a “fearless platform for lively debate” and “celebrating everyone’s right to have an opinion”.
In the interview, Donald Trump claims he threatened his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “in a way never before” when he was in power, about the possibility of an invasion of Ukraine, refusing to say more.
The interview marks Piers Morgan’s big comeback since leaving the ITV morning show live in March 2021. He accused Prince Harry’s wife Meghan Markle of lying, who in an interview mentioned her suicidal thoughts and lack of support from the royal family.
According to excerpts released by British newspaper The Sun, Donald Trump – already a critic of Meghan Markle – thinks like Piers Morgan that the prince is controlled by his wife and that the couple will eventually split.
TalkTV airs on UK television, streaming platforms and YouTube and will be hosted by journalists from The Times and The Sun, the two newspapers Mr Murdoch owns. Interviews with the US President will also take place on Fox Nation and Sky News Australia in the United States.
– “Bump on the BBC” –
Designed to compete with GB News, a conservative channel launched last summer, TalkTV is entering an overcrowded British media landscape.
Already in June 2020, Mr Murdoch’s group, News Corp, launched Times Radio, which was to compete with BBC Radio 4, the public news channel.
While the Australian tycoon has long been angered by a UK law that bans the kind of pro-Trump content that he can broadcast on his Fox News channel in the US, he has disputed the fertile ground for his empire in the UK. There is pie and “anti”-voke Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s agenda.
And he has the advantage of maintaining good relations with the Conservative government, which recently targeted the BBC and Channel 4, another public broadcaster.
“Mr Murdoch’s real aim is to hit the BBC,” said Jean Seaton, a media professor at the University of Westminster and the public broadcasting group’s official historian.
“The BBC and the public broadcaster are a thorn in the side of the strategic business interests of News International (a UK subsidiary of News Corp),” he said.
According to Ms Seaton, “it is about discrediting British institutions for the benefit of a political imperative, without an alternative vision”.