Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has blasted the BBC for “serious editorial misjudgment” over its coverage of an antisemitic attack on Jewish students last December.
The incident, in which video footage showed Jewish students subjected to antisemitic abuse on Oxford Street, went viral last year. The BBC incorrectly reported that “some racial slurs about Muslims can also be heard”.
They failed to correct the online article for eight weeks, even after those on the bus stated no such “slurs” were made.
Now Ofcom has slapped the BBC on the wrist for the report – although they stopped short of claiming it was a breach of the Broadcasting Code…
“…in our view, the BBC made a serious editorial misjudgment by not reporting on air at any point that the claim it had made in the news broadcast was disputed, once the new evidence emerged. This was particularly the case given that the BBC was aware that its news broadcast and online article were causing significant distress and anxiety to the victims of the attack, and to the wider Jewish community. This, in our opinion, was a significant failure to observe its editorial guidelines to report news with due accuracy and due impartiality.
Despite the “contextual factors” around the TV broadcast that stopped it constituting a full breach, Ofcom warned they will “review how the BBC has addressed the complaints handling and transparency issues raised by this case“. Watch this space…
Read the full investigation below…
Former Labour MP Martin Linton is hoping to stage a political comeback at the local elections in nine days. Having lost his Commons seat in 2010, Linton is now running as a councillor candidate in the Lavender ward of Wandsworth. A triumphant return after 12 years in the wilderness…
Just weeks before he crashed out of the Commons back then, however, Linton spoke at a meeting organised by ‘Friends of Al-Aqsa’ to discuss Israeli house demolitions. Here’s what Linton had to say as a sitting Labour MP:
“There are long tentacles of Israel in this country who are funding election campaigns and putting money into the British political system for their own ends… when you make decisions about how you vote and how you advise constituents to vote, you must make them aware of the attempt by Israelis and by pro-Israelis to influence the election.”
Linton was forced to apologise, although he still caveated the mea culpa by insisting he was ‘not aware’ of the antisemitic connotations of the image of the Jewish octopus. A mystery why he lost.
Now he’s back with a Labour rosette on his lapel, despite Starmer claiming he had “closed the door on antisemitism” in the party after Corbyn’s leadership. The “long tentacles of Israel” funding election campaigns isn’t exactly subtle – it’s one of the oldest tropes in the book to suggest Jews control the media and politics. Labour were forced to claim his views don’t represent the party back in 2010. What does Sir Keir think now?
The Jewish Chronicle has revealed that a Cabinet Office Anti-Racism trainer wished death on “Zionists” and likening them to the Nazis. Only in woke Whitehall…
‘Mizan the Poet’ was invited to deliver a training session to civil servants called “an inclusive Britain” in 2019. Mizan – real name Mizanur Rahman – has been accusing Israel of “slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust” and accused the world’s only Jewish nation as practising “antisemitism as #palestinians are #semitic”. Clearly with anti-racism lectures it takes one to know one…
The JC also have tweets showing Rahman comparing Zionists to Nazis and writing “Israel = white supremacy.”
This follows revelations of a series of woke events hosted by Whitehall, recently the DWP decided to cancel a Q&A with a witch after Guido revealed that ridiculous use of civil servants’ time. Co-conspirators should send Guido any other examples of civil service wokery and witchcraft to team@order-order.com…
Guido can reveal that the Royal Court Theatre – which has recently become embroiled in its third antisemitism row after staging a play featuring a world-conquering billionaire character named ‘Hershel Fink’ – received £9,244,936 in public money from the Arts Council of England between 2018-2022. The controversial London theatre is advised by Lord Wood, who is a director of the organisation – a post he’s held since 2007. Guido wonders what advice he is giving that allows such obviously racist tropes to slip through the net…
The play, which according to the trailer is about “power, money, (…) and the apathy of powerful people”, was forced to change the name of its protagonist Hershel Fink to Henry Finn after Jewish activists including David Baddiel slammed the production for racism. Royal Court Theatre later apologised “unreservedly for this situation” and blamed “unconscious bias” for their mistake. Pretty poor excuse…
Royal Court Theatre has a history of controversy, sometimes of a similar kind. In 1987 they tried to put on Loach’s Perdition which was labelled “deeply anti-semitic” by Martin Gilbert. In 2007, the theatre staged the deeply dubious “Seven Jewish Children”. Their choices seem to be conscious and systemic…
Labour Against Antisemitism (LAAS) has accused Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle of “maliciously dismissing anti-Semitism as a smear” in a formal complaint sent to Keir Starmer, after Russell-Moyle apologised to former party members who he claimed had been “purged or set up with false allegations” relating to antisemitism. This comes just days after Guido heard that the Labour Whips’ Office is “giving serious consideration” to withdrawing the whip from Moyle for the same reason…
Since then, Russell-Moyle has doubled down on his claims, tweeting:
“…there are anti-Semites that have rightly been expelled from party… [others] have been threatened with expulsion or investigation for no reason.”
“Amongst other things, Mr Russell-Moyle has repeatedly promoted anti-Jewish racists and appeared to express conspiracy theory that antisemitism in the Labour Party was fabricated. Elected officials using their platforms in this way should have no place in mainstream political party, and allowing it to continue may also go agains EHRC law.”
Pressure starting to ramp up on Starmer to take action…
A modest group of protestors gathered outside Labour HQ this afternoon to protest Sir Keir’s decision to proscribe four “toxic” hard-left Labour campaign groups from the party at today’s NEC. Considering the meeting was held over Zoom, Guido doubts it had much of an impact…
Nonetheless, Guido spoke to some of these protesters to see what they had to say. There were a colourful range of characters, including Tony “notorious antisemite” Greenstein who insists that claims of anti-Semitism have been manufactured to sabotage the Labour Party, and Piers Corbyn who ardently assured Guido that his brother is not an anti-Semite. It’s a shame 85% of British Jews don’t agree…
