The Guardian publishes, then censors Jewish open letter defending smeared pro-Corbyn Labour MP Chris Williamson
The full article:
Britain’s leading newspaper The Guardian, which has relentlessly attacked Jeremy Corbyn and his leftist allies, published but then quickly removed an open letter signed by Noam Chomsky defending Labour MP Chris Williamson from “anti-Semitism” smears.
By Ben Norton
Britain’s leading newspaper The Guardian has censored an open letter published by prominent Jewish intellectuals, writers, and activists that defended leftist Labour Party Member of Parliament Chris Williamson from “anti-Semitism” smears.
The Guardian printed, but then quickly removed the letter without explanation.
Meanwhile, the paper has refused to retract a wholly discredited article that maligned journalist and political prisoner Julian Assange which has remained on the website for more than seven months. WikiLeaks says this piece is completely false, and has pledged to sue the newspaper over it.
The retracted open letter was a defense of Chris Williamson emphasizing that the socialist and anti-imperialist MP “has a longer record of campaigning against racism and fascism than most of his detractors,” and “stands as we do with the oppressed rather than the oppressor.”
Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and many others have signed this important letter in support of @DerbyChrisW
'The mass media have ignored the huge support for Chris both within and beyond the Labour party. Support that includes many Jews.'dumptheguardian.com/news/2019/jul/…
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Among the more than 100 signatories on the missive are world-renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky, accomplished scholar Norman Finkelstein, anti-war activists Medea Benjamin and Ariel Gold, legal expert and former UN special rapporteur Richard Falk, Holocaust survivors, Israeli dissidents, and leaders of progressive Jewish organizations in the United Kingdom.
The Guardian of Blairism
As the British newspaper of record, The Guardian has for years been the voice of Blairite centrism. It supported the joint US-UK invasion of Iraq, along with the wars on Libya and Syria, and scarcely deviates from the Western foreign-policy consensus.
In fact, the Guardian’s deputy editor works has collaborated with the UK’s Defense Notice (D-Notice) committee, which complies with official British government requests to censor information that is deemed sensitive to “national security.” (The New York Times similarly collaborates with the US government.)
Guardian's deputy editor @paul__johnson joined state censorship D-Notice committee (run by MOD) after Snowden revelations in sop to British spooks. In board minutes, they thank him for being "instrumental in re-establishing links" between UK mil/intel and Guardian. Explains a lot
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The Guardian has relentlessly attacked the socialist leadership of Jeremy Corbyn since he was elected head of the Labour Party in a landslide vote in 2015.
The newspaper has published a barrage of smears against Corbyn and his allies, fueling a witch hunt based on grossly exaggerated accusations of anti-Semitism.
The witch hunt against Corbyn allies
Chris Williamson has been a key Corbyn ally in Parliament, advancing a staunchly progressive anti-war and anti-imperialist politics at a time when many Blairite holdovers in the Labour Party are pushing for more aggressive and bellicose policies against Russia, China, Venezuela, Iran, and Syria.
Williamson was suspended in February after making comments which were later misrepresented by anti-Corbyn activists. He lamented that the Labour Party, which had “done more to stand up to racism is now being demonised as a racist, bigoted party.”
“I’ve got to say I think our party’s response has been partly responsible for that because in my opinion,” the MP added. “We’ve backed off far too much, we’ve given too much ground, we’ve been too apologetic.”
Williamson’s remarks were distorted by pro-war and pro-Israel activists, who tried to portray him as anti-Semitic.
Over 100 Prominent members of the Jewish community, in the UK and abroad, write to defend the Labour MP Chris Williamson amid allegations of antisemitismtheguardian.com/news/2019/jul/…
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The open letter censored by The Guardian noted that “Chris Williamson did not say that the party had been ‘too apologetic about antisemitism’, as has been widely misreported.”
The letter continued, “Such attacks on Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters aim to undermine not only the Labour party’s leadership but also all pro-Palestinian members.”
The full open letter is archived here, and reprinted in full at the bottom of this article.
On July 9, mere hours after it was published, The Guardian scrubbed the document from its website. The unexplained deletion was preceded by angry outbursts by anti-Corbyn activists, who misrepresented and distorted past comments by some of the signatories.
The newspaper left a brief note saying an “investigation” is pending, followed by a large request for donations from readers.
Chomsky: Anti-Semitism smears are insult to Holocaust victims
Before the letter was published, British journalist Matt Kennard reached out to signatory Noam Chomsky, who said in response to the smears against Chris Williamson, “The way charges of anti-semitism are being used in Britain to undermine the Corbyn-led Labour Party is not only a disgrace but also — to put it simply — an insult to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. ”
“The charges against Chris Williamson are a case in point,” Chomsky explained. “There is nothing even remotely anti-semitic in his statement that Labour has ‘given too much ground’ and been ‘too apologetic’ in defending its record of addressing ‘the scourge of anti-semitism’ beyond that of any other party, as he himself had done, on public platforms and in the streets.”
Noam Chomsky, the world’s leading public intellectual and leftwing icon, comes out in support of Chris Williamson. See statement he just sent me below. Please share widely!
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The Guardian’s refusal to retract fake news
The Guardian was quick to respond to the anti-Corbyn activists calling for the open letter to be censored. At the same time, the newspaper has refused to retract articles that have been proven to be false.
In November 2018, the Guardian published a piece claiming that former Donald Trump campaign director Paul Manafort had secretly met with WikiLeaks publisher and political prisoner Julian Assange in Ecuador’s London embassy three times.
WikiLeaks adamantly denied the report, calling it “entirely fabricated.” Manafort himself also said it was false, as did former Ecuadorian diplomats. WikiLeaks launched a legal fund to raise money to sue The Guardian for libel.
The Guardian’s editor-in-chief Katharine Viner has refused to comment on the allegedly fake story, co-authored by Luke Harding, and after over half a year there is still no evidence to support it.
“A simple retraction and apology will not be enough,” said WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson. “This persecution of Assange is one of the most serious attacks on journalism in recent times.”
Jewish support for Chris Williamson
(Here is the full open letter censored by The Guardian.)
We the undersigned, all Jews, are writing in support of Chris Williamson and to register our dismay at the recent letter organised by Tom Watson, and signed by parliamentary Labour party and House of Lords members, calling for his suspension (Anger over return of MP who said Labour was ‘too apologetic’ over antisemitism, 28 June).
Chris Williamson did not say that the party had been “too apologetic about antisemitism”, as has been widely misreported. He correctly stated that the Labour party has done more than any other party to combat the scourge of antisemitism and that, therefore, its stance should be less apologetic. Such attacks on Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters aim to undermine not only the Labour party’s leadership but also all pro-Palestinian members.
The mass media have ignored the huge support for Chris both within and beyond the Labour party. Support that includes many Jews. The party needs people like him, with the energy and determination to fight for social justice. As anti-racist Jews, we regard Chris as our ally: he stands as we do with the oppressed rather than the oppressor. It should also be noted that he has a longer record of campaigning against racism and fascism than most of his detractors.
The Chakrabarti report recommended that the party’s disciplinary procedures respect due process, favour education over expulsion and promote a culture of free speech, yet this has been abandoned in practice. We ask the Labour party to reinstate Chris Williamson and cease persecuting such members on false allegations of antisemitism.
Noam Chomsky MIT
Norman Finkelstein Lecturer and writer
Ed Asner Actor
Prof Richard Falk Princeton University
Leah Lavene and Jenny Manson Jewish Voice for Labour
And more than 100 others
Full list of signatories at tinyurl.com/y4mr4lwb
My letter to the Guardian's Reader's Editor:
Hello, Mr Chadwick:
My letter to the Guardian's Reader's Editor:
Hello, Mr Chadwick:
OK, let’s pretend The Guardian actually cares what its readers think if it goes against a core project of the paper. It doesn’t, unless and until such resistance can be reasonably expected to undermine profit or market share. I mean, let’s be real here: you’re there for the same reason other corporations have HR: to provide covering fire, to give the impression of some kind of transparent, quasi-democratic, and additionally in your case a fourth-branchiness (to go American on you for a second) to your for-profit endeavor.
But let’s pretend, just for a second, that I’m not a non-subscriber lacking even that minuscule leverage, and you’re interested in challenging your bosses in a really substantive way.
A core project of The Guardian is to destroy Corbyn and his movement by any means necessary. Chief among those means (the sole means?) is smearing him and the whole party as some neo-Nazi hotbed of antisemitism just one bad election result away from establishing a British Auschwitz in which, one presumes, Jews will be massacred by being forced to eat English food. Which actually would be a war crime.
This is about the level of seriousness with which these charges you’ve all been shrieking about should be taken. To say nothing of making this move, you know, while the far-right takes over the whole world. And there’s, like, real antisemitism afoot.
So, the line—a line so obviously overblown (to the point of falsity) that it instantly reinforces the literally Nazi meme of “fake news” (Lügenpresse, as you know)—is that Labor is chock-full of classic, maybe even Nazi-level antisemites, unless and until, of course, some mass-murdering Blairite gets back in the leadership, at which point all antisemitism will instantly vanish.
You know, sort of like how half my mother’s family vanished—up a smokestack in various actual death camps run by actual antisemites.
You know, just a handful or two of the 6ish out of the 12ish million victims of the Nazi holocaust you’re now using as political fodder just cuz you don’t like Corbyn or any kind of social democracy. Plus, there’s the obvious complication for you guys: like the old New Labor party itself, you have to maintain the public fiction that you’re “progressive,” when you’re clearly not. You do this, incidentally, mostly by publishing the worst kind of identity-mongering neoliberal garbage in your op-eds and elsewhere. Something that also helps the far-right, also incidentally. I’m so comforted knowing you’re there guarding me from neo-Nazism by taking out a good-hearted, intelligent guy with a program that actually might help lots of people.
And of course, all this aside, you guys sometimes do fine work, too. Thanks. Much appreciated.
Now, back to the McCarthyite, frankly fascistic use of antisemitism as a smear. That bit is, like, not so much appreciated. I know, I know: must be some crazy, out-of-control, left-wing, Chomskybot, Movement-type of tree-hugging Druid to think this way. I know the memes; the buoy y’all cling to when cog diss gets too intense. It must be the messenger. Hey, I’m a nice guy, so I’ll help: I’m also all-in for Sanders, have a wife but no kids—and, get this!, we have two Priuses, one of which is a plug-in. I voted for Nader—twice! I love Rage Against the Machine. Let’s see…what else, what else: oh, I got it: two Ivy League degrees. Elitist! Or perhaps “Tragically Misguided Pointy-Headed Intellectual and Champagne Socialist” — two Priuses, mind you. Use that; I would: he's an ignorable walking stereotype; note the following Attributes of his Personal Brand, etc. That should do it.
I’m just trying to help. This is your paper’s M.O.: I’m just aping the kind of PR-type meetings you guys have in the office, spitballing and brainstorming. What’ll stick? Thing is, I’m jewish, so you can’t smear me as an antisemite. Self-hater always works, though.
The con is that the Guardian is anything remotely approaching the brand it so desperately is trying to maintain. I mean, if that con were ever exploded, you’d all be out of business, and fast, especially with your whole “we want to be reader-supported” thing going on. Or you could sorta, like, pivot a tad, tone it all down, allow in other views, and let your readers decide. Or are we just marks, marks for propaganda to be softened up, dictated to?
And that, discursively/not discursively speaking, is why you pulled the letter, ultimately. You know it; I know it; everyone whose neural tube has already fused knows it. Yes, I’m including all chordates in that: not just humans. Maybe it’s back up by now? Haven’t checked. If so, great; don’t let that happen again. If not, which is what I expect, well good for you. Another journalistic triumph.
Manufacturing Consent? Filters? We’re way past that here. This is, actually, memory-hole stuff. That’s totalitarian. As you scream every day about how Corbyn will be Hitler with kale.
I mean, seriously, person-to-person here: you have to see this. Shed the institutional garb for a second, just in your mind, which is not yet under surveillance. C’mon. It’s obvious, and it’s obviously wrong. It also looks incredibly weak. And, sadly enough, it’ll probably work, too, if you stick to it. That’s the obvious plan.
You simply cannot, in the last instance, allow certain opinions or truths to be aired. This is one. That your star reporter Luke Harding and your whole editorial staff helped lie and insinuate and character-assassinate Assange, and thus the world’s press, into severe danger—that’s another one.
Answer if you like, but, honestly, what can you say, institutionally speaking?
Best,
Doug Tarnopol
(aka, Professional Member of the F*cking Retarded Left)