“FEAR seemed to stretch out a vast hand, like a dark cloud rising in the West” – with apologies to JRR Tolkien.

The malign influence of Donald Trump on British media has been gathering momentum over recent days. The BBC’s attempt to have his ridiculous $10 billion Panorama lawsuit slung out was countered with a typical inchoate howl of Trumpian bullshit, calling the corporation “Corrupt, fraudulent and criminal!” and falsely accusing the broadcaster of using doctored AI in coverage of his January 6 2021 attempted coup.

The president’s efforts to cow the BBC appear to have succeeded to a degree, as in November the line stating Trump was the “most openly corrupt president in US history” was excised from the BBC Radio 4 broadcast of the Reith lecture by Dutch writer/historian Rutger Bregman. Claims have also been made that the corporation has been softening language in describing the current US “Epic Fury” assault on Iran.

GB Spews

Owned by hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall and Dubai-based investment firm Legatum, right-wing Reform-aligned broadcaster GB News has also been under the spotlight, with Alan Rusbridger’s latest investigation in The New World accusing Ofcom of shirking its official duties when it comes to the channel.

The report prompted Lib Dem leader Ed Davey to decry the channel as “Reform propaganda” at Prime Minister’s Questions on March 18.

Recent issues include the November 2025 interview with Trump by former ITV sports presenter/Russell Brand apologist “Bev” Turner, who indulged in a bravura display of bootlicking; one which Ofcom had no problem with. On March 17, the president praised Turner as a “fantastic reporter” — many commented that this was not the tremendous compliment the reliably gormless presenter obviously thought it was. An outraged Bev responded in one of her trademark epic unhinged TV rants.

Only recently, Thomas Corbett-Dillon, who was part of Penny Mordaunt’s failed Conservative Party leadership campaign and (claimed) former Boris Johnson aide, appeared on GB News’s US-based Late Show Live to assert there’s “a genocide happening” against white people in England and immigrants could “turn” on them.

Fox and friend

Ofcom is currently chaired by 83-year-old Michael Grade, who in 2022 praised odious former Lewis actor/failed London mayor candidate Laurence Fox, booted from GB News itself in 2023 for his comments regarding Ava Evans, political correspondent for PoliticsJoe.

“Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman — ever, ever, that little woman has been fed, spoon-fed oppression day after day after day. And she’s sat there and I’m going like — if I met you in a bar and that was like sentence three, [the] chances of me just walking away are just huge.”

Fox added: “Who’d want to shag that?”

Grade’s thoughts about Fox the previous year included the reflection: “I admire his courage in speaking out and contributing to the debate.” Further back, the sometime Conservative peer described the performative rent-a-gob ex-thespian as a “voice for those of us who are so sick of the intolerance” from whom the veteran TV executive termed “woke warriors.”

Absolute obedience is Paramount

With the GB News bridgehead, Maga looks placed to further poison the well of British politics, with the 2025 acquisition of Paramount and British subsidiary Channel 5 by Skydance’s Trump-fluffing nepo baby David Ellison.

“I had a conversation with the new boss, who said he was very keen on Channel 5. We can do a lot more for the business. He speaks my kind of language,” said Ben Frow, Paramount’s UK chief content officer in 2025.

Will the channel take a rightward turn at its master’s urging, as has CBS News in the US under the controversial editor-in-chief Bari Weiss?

Ellison shelled out $16 million to Trump to nix a libel case lawyers believed CBS could easily have won, while Weiss pulled a 60 Minutes report on Venezuelan men controversially deported by the Trump administration.

At Trump and his FCC myrmidon Brendan Carr’s urging, CBS’s political show, Face the Nation, will only air live or unedited interviews, a break with long-established journalistic practice.

“These actions are in line with what the White House has made clear that they want so I think this is really concerning,” said Rodney Benson, a media professor at New York University.

In a foreshadowing of what could possibly happen in Britain if Reform and their Tory allies got into power and cast their gimlet gaze at British news providers, manic US “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth proclaimed of CNN (provisionally a new addition to the Paramount media empire), “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”

As Labour craters, will Ellison-owned Channel 5’s news coverage become increasingly favourable to Reform, with barely disguised nods to anti-immigrant rhetoric, pro-Trumpian puffery and general programming heavily in favour of “traditional, indigenous” British “culture”? Actually something which 5 already leans into, with the likes of All Creatures Great & Small, the return of “woke-hating” Piers Morgan and Yorkshire-centric programming.

And God forbid, will GB News be engaged to provide C5 bulletin and current affairs shows when the present ITN deal ends in 2028, or is possibly revoked due for a perceived “anti-Trump” bias?

It’s more likely that CBS will be pressed to supply a cheapo British news service from their Chiswick HQ.

Entirely possible, although on LinkedIn, some have chided me for assuming Paramount’s UK chief content officer Ben Frow would fall into line with the new Ellison-driven agenda, rather than walking. The proof, as they say, will be in the pudding. As Frow took back his “secret resignation” from Paramount UK in 2022, nothing would really surprise me about his future career moves.