Jewish Chronicle Corbyn Spin Busted

As the efforts to smear veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn as an anti-Semite falter, despite the low background moan emitted by (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch, attention has turned to the efforts of Stephen “Vicky” Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle (JC), who has been spinning the pretence that most British Jews find the prospect of a Corbyn premiership frightening - whereas the reality appears somewhat different.

No, he still doesn't look scary

Pollard, whose journalistic pursuits include hiring himself out to the Express as part of the convocation of useful idiots pretending that new EU-wide standards for vacuum cleaners would be a hindrance to efficiency, rather than the obvious (it will drive it), has decreed that there were seven questions that Corbyn MUST answer. The Corbyn camp duly answered all seven questions. This gave “Vicky” a problem.

Yeah but he had answered all seven questions, but no but “Vicky” still wasn’t happy. So he decreed “Lots of tweets say Corbyn answered our questions so we should now leave alone - as if journalists must accept first answer they're given!” No but he still wasn’t satisfied, so yeah but there would be more questions. Perhaps. And there would be yet more spin, because some Jewish voices were not happy with his approach.

Fifty well-known members of the UK’s Jewish community signed an open letter to Pollard, in defence of Corbyn. They included actors Mike Cushman and Miriam Margolyes, author and poet Michael Rosen and academic Prof Ilan Pappe, Prof Jonathan Rosenhead and Prof Avi Shlaim, FBA. To the JC’s credit, the letter was published in full. But in “Vicky’s” world of yeah-but-no-but, it had to be spun as something it was not.

“Anti-Israel activists attack JC for challenging Jeremy Corbyn” trumpeted the headline. Er, WHAT? You saw it right: “Dozens of prominent anti-Israel activists have signed an open letter attacking the JC for highlighting of Jeremy Corbyn’s links to anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers”. Let’s just see what that letter said.

“Your assertion that your attack on Jeremy Corbyn is supported by ‘the vast majority of British Jews’ is without foundation … There is something deeply unpleasant and dishonest about your McCarthyite guilt by association technique. Jeremy Corbyn’s parliamentary record over 32 years has consistently opposed all racism including antisemitism”. Quite.

Instead, “Vicky” Pollard Tweeted happily that “I think I'm prouder of receiving this open letter than of any other  I've ever had. All  the country's leading loons”. The use of the term “loon” is straight out of the playbook of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse). And it’s telling that Pollard’s supporters include Alan Mendoza, of the increasingly right-leaning Henry Jackson Society, telling “More like a bunch of has-beens and never-will-bes. What a desperate stunt for some publicity for flagging careers”.

“Vicky” Pollard and his pals are protesting a little too much. The Corbyn “anti-Semitism” smears have had little effect, save to highlight his attackers’ mean-spiritedness.