Mark Steyn Quits GB News over Demand to Pay Broadcasting Fines
by Kurt Zindulka
Veteran conservative presenter Mark Steyn has quit the populist-oriented GB News over alleged demands that he personally pays for any broadcasting fines for discussing sensitive topics, as he has frequently done, particularly on the safety of coronavirus vaccines.
On Monday, Canadian commentator Mark Steyn, who previously served as a frequent fill-in host for late American conservative talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh and Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, announced that he has resigned from his GB News programme.
Steyn, who has been absent from his show since last year after suffering two heart attacks, said that in the wake of his health problems, the upstart news network had come back to him with a revised contract in which he would personally be on the hook for fines from Britain’s national broadcasting regulator Ofcom as opposed to the typical situation in which licence holders, such as GB News, are responsible for fines for violations of the broadcasting code.
“I’m on the hook for Ofcom fines but I don’t have any say in our defence against an Ofcom complaint – that’s all done by GB News. Ofcom’s bitch, as I call the compliance officer, will be making the weedy defence to Ofcom and then I’m the one who has to pay the £40,000 fine,” he said.