Systematic Reporting Failures

Notorious Israel-haters “Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, Ken Loach, Brian Eno, Prof Greg Philo, Jenny Manson, Lindsey German, Mike Cushman,” (these are just the ones I’ve actually heard of) and numerous others have signed a piece in the Guardian complaining that the media has been less than impartial in reporting “allegations of antisemitism against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party. “  The phrase they use is “systematic reporting failures”.  

The alleged motive for such “systematic reporting failures” is “to weaken the Labour leadership and to bolster its opponents within and outside of the party.”

Naturally, as staunch, lifelong opponents of Islamophobia and racism in all its forms, they concede that:

“It is of course entirely appropriate and necessary for our major news outlets to report on the horrors of antisemitism, but wrong to present it as an issue specific to the Labour party.” 

They conclude:

“We believe that significant parts of the UK media have failed their audiences by producing flawed reports that have contributed to an undeserved witch-hunt against the Labour leader and misdirected public attention away from antisemitism elsewhere, including on the far right, which is ascendant in much of Europe.”

As Eve Gerard points out in her piece on Harry’s Place,  What’s good for the Goose …

“I trust that the signatories to this letter also object to the production of flawed reports about Israel’s conduct, reports which contain inaccuracies, clear distortions, and revealing omissions that have contributed to an undeserved witch-hunt against the Jewish state”. 

Everyone can agree it would be hypocritical of them not to. Of course, there is a small flaw in that logic. The media hasn’t, in fact,  been backward in coming forward about the Corbynistas’ interpretation of the whole business of antisemitism in the Labour Party. It has been widely reported that Corbyn’s acolytes and apostles see the accusation of antisemitism in the Labour Party as nothing but a smear. “to weaken the Labour leadership and to bolster its opponents within and outside of the party” The media has faithfully reported this all along; countless times.

Whereas throughout the BBC’s Israel-related reporting - the omissions and distortions are quite real, and have been (and are still being) regularly and painstakingly recorded on relatively low-key websites such as BBC Watch (and this one.)