Sky News treated their Political Correspondent’s film about British Jews as a major news story yesterday. It was prominently featured throughout the day. Maybe it was a dull day for news or something, but Sky seemed to find it newsworthy.
The story was based on the findings of a survey by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which concluded that one in six British Jews (17%) felt unwelcome in Britain and 37% felt the need to conceal their Judaism in public.
Sky still fell into the trap (is it a trap?) of identifying “British Jews’ by showing footage of Orthodox Jews scurrying along the streets in traditional dress. However when Tamara spoke to Mandy Blumenthal in a cafe, both ladies were cunningly disguised in plain clothes.
(I will resist going wildly off at a tangent here. Very tempted though)
Ms. Bumenthal said:
"I can't believe I'm having to do this but I'm literally scared not of what's going to be happening in England tomorrow or even next year, but I think within the next 10 years it will not be tolerable for Jews here.”
.@SkyNews Political Correspondent @TamCohen reports on CAA’s Antisemitism Barometer research. Find out more at https://t.co/5WibClnlqb pic.twitter.com/hX00vxQ7Wu— CAA #Antisemitism (@antisemitism) 20 August 2017
The BBC didn’t think this story merited a slot on the main news, but they did discuss it on the Sunday Programme, the Radio 4 magazine programme that covers religious matters.
William Crawley spoke to Gideon Falter of the CAA. Falter was allowed to speak at length, but twice, when he was in full flow, Crawley interjected, crying “Gideon! Gideon!”
Anyway, see if you can spot a pattern in the interjections.
1.) “We’ve also got a lot of concern at the way that antisemitism is being allowed to fester in British politics….” “Gideon!”
2.) “……the government in particular and I also think the Labour Party in particular need to be extremely worried about the message that’s currently being sent to British Jews” ”Gideon! Gideon!”
Was Crawley trying to steer the conversation away from the antisemitism in the Labour Party? Or am I imagining it.
Have a listen, do.
