We Refuse to Give Him a Platform

Warner Bros. Discovery has argued that a new docuseries following Jacob Rees-Mogg is not about giving the controversial right-wing politician a platform.

Meet The Rees-Moggs created plenty of noise in the UK when it was announced earlier this summer, with tabloid newspapers nicknaming the series Mogglebox and comparing it to The Kardashians.

Rees-Mogg was a former member of the Conservative Party government, but lost his seat in UK Parliament at the general election last month as Labour swept to power. He also presents a show on right-leaning GB News and has fallen foul of TV rules on impartiality.

Optomen’s Discovery+ series will follow Rees-Mogg in the run-up to the vote, as well as examining the fallout from him exiting Parliament after 14 years.

Charlotte Reid, Warner Bros. Discovery’s VP of commissioning in the UK, told the Edinburgh TV Festival that the series was commissioned because Discovery+ is “fascinated by characters.”

Reid was asked to justify giving a platform to an MP who has described abortion as a “cult of death” and has used in Parliament the phrase “yellow peril,” which is considered offensive by the East Asian community.

“We’re not giving him a platform. It’s a moment to watch a moment in political history. We will get a really privileged behind the scenes or fly-on-the-wall look at that. He’s not an MP anymore; he is a person of note,” she said. “We didn’t commission it to stand with him or against him. It is unbiased.”

Reid added that Meet The Rees-Moggs was greenlit with an eye on the fact that Rees-Mogg would lose his seat at the election.

Warner Bros. Discovery played a clip of the series, in which Rees-Mogg said inviting cameras into his life was “slightly like Big Brother is watching you.” He joked: “I think this will be a rather different kettle fish from The Kardashians.”

Source: Particle News, Edinburgh TV Festival