This is a guest post by Eve Garrard
There’s a letter in yesterday’s Guardian, signed by Noam Chomsky, Ken Loach, and other luminaries, objecting to media coverage of charges that the Labour Party is institutionally antisemitic. The signatories to the letter make the following claims:
“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.
In covering the allegations that Labour is now “institutionally antisemitic”, there have been inaccuracies, clear distortions and revealing omissions across our most popular media platforms. 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.”
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 and those who support it, and have misdirected public attention away from human rights violations elsewhere which are in the ascendant in much of the Middle East and indeed further afield. I trust they also believe that it is wrong for the media (mainstream or otherwise) to present such violations as an issue specific to the Jewish state. I look forward to seeing their signatures on letters to the Guardian on this matter. An absence of such complaints might properly be called …. er, um, what’s the word I’m looking for ….it seems to have slipped my mind for the moment, so let’s just call it hypocrisy.
