GB News' Commercial Director was abused by a baying mob of advertising executives at a plush industry do.
Nicole O'Shea, 42, was told to "f**k off" by a large group of fist-pumping men, who threatened her and screamed abuse about The People's Channel.
The shameful scenes, which can be seen in the video below, at The Drum's Roses Awards in Manchester follow a relentless campaign of online bullying by anti-free speech political activists who want GB News shut down.
A hard-left group - ironically called Stop Funding Hate - has stirred up fury against the channel and been demanding an advertising boycott since before it even launched, but this is the first time it has threatened to spill into violence.
Ms O'Shea - who was at the ceremony to present several awards - said: "Just before the event an activist called Jerry Daykin posted a Tweet criticising the organisers and claiming GB News is a source of 'hate speech'.
"Of course, that's total nonsense. We believe in free speech and welcome all opinions, on all issues, from all people. Anyone who watches GB News regularly knows that. But his Tweet certainly didn't calm the crowd, most of whom I don't think have ever watched a second of our channel.
"There were hundreds of people from the advertising industry there, mostly men.
"When I stepped up to hand over the first of three awards it was unpleasant. There was a lot of booing.
"But it really kicked off when I went on stage to hand over the second award. Dozens of people were egging each other on, shouting abuse at me, screaming at me to 'f**k off', hurling abuse about Brexit and all sorts.
"The organisers asked me if I wanted to bow out of presenting the other awards, but we'd sponsored the event and I felt like we had a right to be there.
"From that moment on though, it got far worse. Some were really angry, shouting 'get off the stage', making hand gestures, fist-pumping, swearing. It was horrible."
Ms O'Shea says she tried to reason with several members of the febrile crowd - some of whom she recognised from major UK advertising agencies - but they responded with even more insults and refused to engage reasonably with her.
GB News Chief Executive Angelos Frangopoulos has written an unprecedented open letter to the entire UK advertising industry
GB News
She added: "I tried to speak to one guy who was hurling horrendous abuse at me. I asked him why he was so angry. He said he wanted to move to Italy but couldn't because Brexit had ruined Britain. And he blamed GB News for that.
"I told him that was nothing to do with me or GB News, that the Brexit vote was held seven years ago and that the channel is only two years old and welcomes a broad range of opinions, but he didn't want to know. He seemed to blame us for everything he didn't like about the UK.
"The Stop Funding Hate campaign has led directly to this mob mentality. It's got to a point where people think it's ok to abuse a woman in what's supposed to be a professional environment.
"These people wanted to take the moral high ground, but their awful, bullying boorish behaviour was really intimidating. It could have turned very nasty. I know there were people who did not feel this way but they were overpowered with noise. This sort of thing would result in serious disciplinary action in any workplace.
"I was really struck that the people at those awards, which included lots of senior representatives of the UK advertising industry, hate me, hate GB News and - clearly - they hate our viewers. They don't seem to know why they hate any of us. They just do.
"We're increasingly beating both the BBC News Channel and Sky News in the ratings. And it seems to have really rattled the whole establishment.
"This wasn't just an attack on me. It was an attack on all the people who love GB News. It’s a display of contempt and snobbery to them and sums up the disgust that some media luvvies have for ordinary folk outside of London and the 52 per cent of the population who voted for Brexit.
"Stop Funding Hate is a hard-left group of activists who bully and pressure advertisers until they get what they want, to suit their own political agenda.
Stop Funding Hate director Rosey Ellum has a history of offensive tweets
BBC
"And this is directly where it's led. A professional woman in 2023 should not have to worry about encountering this type of abuse at an industry event. This behaviour cannot be encouraged or tolerated.
"This is not stopping hate - it's fuelling it."
The disgraceful scenes have led GB News Chief Executive Angelos Frangopoulos to write an unprecedented open letter to the entire UK advertising industry, which you can read in full below.
In it, Mr Frangopoulos says: "When did this industry normalise this type of intimidation and humiliation towards anyone, never mind a woman in a professional setting?
"This was the physical manifestation of the systemic and institutional intolerance levelled at GB News since before its launch."
He goes on: "Our staff have been abused and trolled; our advertisers threatened, and attempts made to sabotage us. Misinformation and conspiracy theories about us have been spread expertly and determinedly to demonise GB News as a grotesque caricature of something it is not.
"Our crime? We tap into mainstream but non-metropolitan viewpoints, audiences who simply aren’t very London in their outlook. In other words, the majority of Britons."
Last year it emerged Stop Funding Hate director Rosey Ellum, 37, has history of offensive tweets. She branded Boris Johnson "racist", then Chancellor Rishi Sunak an "absolute f*****" and claimed Nigel Farage "hung out with Nazis". In 2021 she reacted to a new Home Office proposal to limit immigration with the words 'F****** f***ery you f*****s.'
The Drum, the industry publication that organised the event, declined to comment.
Read in full - GB News Chief Executive's open letter to the advertising industry
The Drum’s Roses Awards are an opportunity for the advertising industry to celebrate excellence in creative achievement, which is why we chose to support the event.
But last Thursday the ceremony became a lesson in hypocrisy and revealed much about the contempt some in the industry hold for true diversity.
Our Commercial Director Nicole O’Shea was shouted at and heckled as she tried to present three awards for genuine brilliance among her peers.
With mob mentality, guests fist-pumped and goaded each other to hurl more abuse, yelling “f*** off!” among other insults while making obscene gestures at her. Most were men.
The trolling and incitement began before the event, when people like Jerry Daykin (author of, ironically, Inclusive Marketing) tweeted his fury that GB News was a major sponsor of the Roses. “Stop normalising GB News,” he wrote. He was not alone.
I have to ask, when did this industry normalise this type of intimidation and humiliation towards anyone, never mind a woman in a professional setting?
While such behaviour should shame anyone who stands for inclusion and respect, this must not be dismissed as an isolated incident perpetrated by a few bad players.
Rather, it was the physical manifestation of the systemic and institutional intolerance levelled at GB News since before its launch.
Our staff have been abused and trolled; our advertisers threatened, and attempts made to sabotage us. Misinformation and conspiracy theories about us have been spread expertly and determinedly to demonise GB News as a grotesque caricature of something it is not.
Our crime? We tap into mainstream but non-metropolitan viewpoints, audiences who simply aren’t very London in their outlook. In other words, the majority of Britons.
While tolerance and diversity are rightly prized by the advertising industry, these values appear conditional on people agreeing with one singular, fashionable, and very metropolitan world view.
This blinkered outlook risks putting advertisers out of touch with the millions of consumers and customers who love GB News and consume the products your clients want to sell.
We know many in the advertising industry are unnerved by the bullying and cancel culture towards GB News and, vitally, our growing audience. They’ve told us confidentially, but they’re frightened to speak up in case they’re singled out for the same treatment.
We also know that some people in that room at the Roses are supportive of GB News and were upset by the outrageous bullying levelled at our female executive. As organisers, The Drum did its best.
But did anyone call it out at the time, or on social media afterwards? No, they did not. Not because they liked it, but because they feel silenced by the ever-present threat of cancel culture.
Targeting GB News has become the acceptable face of hate. In fact, you get bragging rights for virtue-signalling your contempt towards our channel and therefore, tellingly, your contempt and snobbery for our growing audience – the very consumers advertisers want to reach.
It’s disappointing that the Roses incident happened in Manchester because we find regional agencies far more open and fair-minded to the diversity of opinion that GB News offers.
It’s not surprising that regional agencies are more in tune with the non-metropolitan audiences, and no coincidence that some of our strongest audiences are in the north-west. We based our commercial leadership team in Manchester for a reason.
No one wants to fund hate, least of all me, so GB News is not hateful. I’m struck however by the irony that the most hateful discourse I encounter daily is directed towards us, not by us.
It’s time to call time on intolerance and to accept that not everyone agrees or sees the world in the same way.
In any liberal democracy, plurality of media is an overwhelmingly good thing. Few question that The Express and The Guardian co-exist in our media landscape – they are different voices for different audiences.
GB News is a different voice in British media. We are proudly here for the people, but not necessarily for media people, and that is why audiences are turning to us.
Angelos Frangopoulos
Chief Executive Officer, GB News Limited
