Photo: Twitter
Martin Daubney, look away now. The politician-turned-anchor had a nightmare while delivering live updates to GB News viewers this weekend, fluffing his lines repeatedly for almost a full minute. We’re adding a trigger warning for ‘cringe’ on this one…
The presenter was seemingly caught off-guard by developments in the hunt for Daniel Khalife. The prisoner had escaped from HMP Wandsworth earlier this week, strapped to the bottom of a delivery truck no less.
After five days on the run, Khalife – who was detained on terror offences – was eventually recaptured by police. The manhunt had spanned the length of the country, and forced an heightened set of border checks at national keypoints.
The end of the saga unfolded fairly quickly – perhaps, too quickly for Daubney and his colleagues. His piece to camera was littered with inaccuracies, broken sentences, and awkward pauses. While trying to find his mark, the host also referred to Khalife as ‘the terror man’.
As you’ll see in the clip at the bottom of this article, 60 seconds is a long time when you’re live on air. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Things peaked when Daubney introduced his guest by the wrong name, before correcting himself.
“First it’s the news headlines… no, it’s not. We’ve got breaking news. It’s fast happening… as we just said… the apprehended terror man… oh, it’s all gone wrong. We’ve got Chip Chapman as our first guest. Joining me now is Mark White. No, it’s Chip Chapman…” | Martin Daubney
Daubney went on to blame the autocue, saying they needed ‘more time’ to get the script in place. He just about stumbled through to interview his guest, eventually composing himself for the Q&A. So, how did the veteran journalist handle the fallout?
Well, he’s so far ignored it, and has instead chosen to boast about GB News’ viewing figures. Each to their own, we suppose.
