Where’s the Coverage? Thousands March Against Antisemitism in the U.K.

A picture of the March 26, 2018 protest before the UK Parliament. Image courtesy of The Guardian newspaper

On March 26, 2018, thousands of people in the United Kingdom took to the streets to protest antisemitism by the British Labour Party. Yet, several leading U.S. news outlets—many of which have professed concern with rising antisemitism—failed to fully cover the event.

Britain’s Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies of British Jews organized the protest. According to a report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), “approximately 2,000 people gathered outside the houses of Parliament in London,” to highlight their concern that the Labour Party and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, are “enabling anti-Semitism in the party.”

As JTA noted, Corbyn has called Hezbollah and Hamas—both terrorist groups that are committed to Israel’s destruction—“friends.” Several Labour Party officials, such as Ken Livingstone, a former mayor of London, have engaged in forms of Holocaust denial and minimization. Others have repeatedly propagated antisemitic tropes. A 2016 Labour-led inquiry tasked with investigating these charges was labeled by some, including several Labour Party members, a “whitewash” and a “sham.”

More recently, the journalist David Collier revealed that several top Labour Party officials, as well as several journalists, belonged to a Facebook group that routinely posted antisemitic material (“BBC Reporter Revealed To Be A Member of Secret Anti-Israel Facebook Group,” BBC Watch, March 7, 2018). Initially, Corbyn denied knowingly belonging to the group. However, it was later revealed that he had commented on several posts and was an active member.

Several days before the March 26, 2018 protest, it was revealed that Corbyn had supported the creator of an antisemitic mural in 2012.

In response, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Britain’s Jewish Leadership Council issued an open letter decrying antisemitism in the Labour Party and noting that Corbyn has a history of “siding with antisemites.”

Thousands of people protesting antisemitism by a major U.K. political party and its leader—potentially the Prime Minister of a leading U.S. ally and world power— is a newsworthy event that some have labeled a “crisis.” But several major U.S. news outlets have failed to properly cover it.

For example, the print editions of both The Washington Post and The New York Times declined to provide any original reporting on the demonstration against antisemitism in the Labour Party. Both papers have London bureaus—and thus, the staff and the resources to do so—but instead they merely chose to republish short wire service briefs from the Associated Press and Reuters. The AP brief published by The Post was a mere nine sentences.

The print editions of other major media outlets, such as USA Today and The Baltimore Sun, entirely omitted any mention of the protests.

All of these outlets have, in recent months, published editorials and Op-Eds highlighting rising antisemitism. However, as CAMERA noted in a March 16, 2018 Times of Israel Op-Ed (“The Washington Post’s Skewed Coverage of Antisemitism”), some in the press selectively cover antisemitism; often failing to fully cover it when it emanates from anywhere but the far right.

In a Nov. 23 2017, commentary entitled “How to Protect Against Fake ‘Facts,’” Washington Post opinion writer David Ignatius warned against media outlets becoming overly reliant on “news services such as the Associated Press or Reuters.” Ignatius expressed concern about the press disseminating false and/or misleading information:

“We live in an information ecosystem,” he wrote. “If it becomes polluted, all the creatures that depend on the ecosystems are at risk. We say that sunlight is the best disinfectant. But that’s true only when the sun shines brightly.”

But the media spotlight wasn’t shining on the March 26, 2018 demonstration against antisemitism. Without fair and impartial press coverage, this toxic age-old hatred will only continue to spread. And history is clear: This puts everyone—not just the Jewish people—at risk.