GB News has been forced to apologise to a female journalist after Laurence Fox launched a despicable rant against her on Dan Wootton’s show.
Controversial political figure and former actor Laurence was appearing on Dan’s show on Tuesday (September 26). The pair had been discussing Ava Evans, a journalist working for online publication JOE.
Evans found herself in hot water after she made comments that appeared to make light of male suicide. She later admitted she regretted the remarks that she made.
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Fox, who is known for making outlandish comments on women and the LGBTQ+ community slammed Ava, branding her a “little woman”. He also called on women to reject her “feminist” ideas.
GB News later Laurence Fox has been suspended while the broadcaster investigates comments he made.
(Image: GB NEWS)
Laurence ranted about how unlikeable he believed her to be for men. Wootton immediately smirked after the former Lewis star made the remarks.
“Show me a single self-respecting man who would like to climb into bed with that woman ever who wasn’t a cucked little incel,” Laurence said. He then claimed she had been “spoon-fed oppression” which began with the issue of the gender pay gap, which sees that women earn less money than men for the same job.
He added: “We need powerful, strong amazing women who make great points for themselves. We don’t need these sort of feminist 4.0. They’re pathetic and embarrassing. Who’d want to shag that?”
(Image: GB News)
Ava posted a clip of the interview to Twitter, adding that she felt “physically sick” watching it. Fans swarmed to support the journalist whilst many accused GB News of going too far.
Host Dan later directly apologised to Ava, claiming he was trying “to find your tweets to read back” from his iPad after Laurence made the comments. However, many called out his laughs during the interview, calling him insensitive.
Dan said: “Dear Ava I think you’re brilliant. Earlier tonight I was attempting to find your tweets to read back from my iPad and couldn’t locate them. I apologise for what was said during the course of my show and should have done this immediately on air. This is now what our channel is about.”
(Image: Twitter)
In the early hours of Wednesday morning (September 27), Dan posted a second, lengthier apology. He said his reaction to the situation was “inappropriate” and explained that he had been laughing “out of shock and surprise in an off guard moment”.
The second statement read: “I want to reiterate my regret over last night’s exchange with Laurence on GB News. Having looked at the footage, I can see how inappropriate my reaction to his totally unacceptable remarks appears to be and want to be clear that I was in no way amused by the comments.
“I reacted as I did out of shock and surprise in an off guard moment while working out how to respond as he continued to speak by searching for tweets @AvaSantina had sent earlier in the day while having them read out in my ear at the same time. However, I should have intervened immediately to challenge offensive and misogynistic remarks.
(Image: Twitter)
“I apologise unreservedly for what was a very unfortunate lapse in judgement on my part under the intense pressure of a bizarre exchange. I know I should have done better.
“I’m devastated that I let down the team and our supportive GBN family. We seek to tackle the issue and not the person, which I intend to stress again on air tonight.”
GB News itself offered a statement on Twitter in the wake of the debacle, disowning Fox’s comments as “unacceptable”. The channel said it had launched an internal investigation into the scandal, saying Laurence’s comments “does not reflect our values”.
It read: “Comments made tonight on GB News by Laurence Fox were totally unacceptable. What he said does not reflect our values and we apologise unreservedly for the comments and the offence they have caused. We have launched an investigation and will be apologising to the individual involved.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
