Deleted paragraphs drastically change impression created by notorious 2019 programme ‘Is Labour antisemitic?’
An admission by the BBC that it radically edited an interview in its notorious 2019 Panorama programme that presented Labour as antisemitic has been discovered tucked away in a corner of the broadcaster’s website.
‘Is Labour antisemitic’ was broadcast just months before the 2019 general election. Some of its many failings were analysed by Skwawkbox here, but the BBC rejected complaints that the programme was biased, despite misleading edits of emails by Corbyn’s key adviser and its use of ‘whistleblowers’ with clear political and personal interest in smearing the Corbyn-led party.
And the BBC has admitted – quietly and more than three years too late – that it also edited out key context from at least one interview shown on the programme – and it did so radically, in a way that made it look as if antisemitism had been suffered inside the Labour party that was in fact perpetrated years before and by right-wing extremists, not the Labour left.
The BBC’s ‘corrections and clarifications’ section is buried in its ‘help and feedback’ pages – and contains this admission – sections in bold were added by the BBC and are merely replicated below.
First, the BBC shows the wording that was broadcast, giving a clear and false impression that some of Lenga’s experiences were in the party:
Is Labour Anti-Semitic?
Panorama, BBC One, 10 July 2019
The programme contained an interview with Izzy Lenga who had experienced antisemitism after she became a student activist. Viewers heard her discuss her experiences:
I’m Izzy Lenga, I joined the Labour Party in 2015… The antisemitic abuse I received was what I was subjected to every single day… Telling me Hitler was right, telling me Hitler did not go far enough…
In Labour Party meetings… we’ve seen people engage in Holocaust denial… and that’s terrifying for Jewish members… It absolutely breaks my heart to say but I do not think the Labour Party is a safe space for Jewish people any more.
Then the admission:
If the programme were to be re-broadcast, we would include some additional comments (in bold below) from Ms Lenga’s original interview to give viewers further context around her experiences:
I’m Izzy Lenga, I joined the Labour Party in 2015… When I was a student… being quite a high profile Jewish woman student, I was subjected to quite a lot of like nasty vitriol and abuse… The antisemitic abuse I received… was what I was subjected to every single day… Predictably a lot of it came from the far right… neo-Nazi abuse… telling me Hitler was right, telling me Hitler did not go far enough and even more… What absolutely baffled me, was at the same time, I was receiving… very similar and almost often the exact same tropes and anti-Semitic abuse… from the far left.
In Labour Party meetings… we’ve seen people engage in Holocaust denial… and that’s terrifying for Jewish members… It absolutely breaks my heart to say but I do not think the Labour Party is a safe space for Jewish people any more.
14/12/2022
The antisemitism smear was always a politically-motivated scam perpetrated to remove the ‘threat’ – to Establishment interests – of a Corbyn-led Labour party that actually planned to change things to improve life for ordinary people.
The BBC has admitted, barely and as secretly as it could manage, playing a vital role in that smear campaign. In the opinion of this site, though, it has barely scratched the surface of its own guilt, let alone that of wider Establishment media and politicians.
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