Welcome To Zelo Street!

This is a blog of liberal stance and independent mind

Monday 7 January 2019

Rachel Riley’s Chomsky Meltdown

Some of the slebs who use social media platforms know their limitations. Others know the old adage often attributed to the late Denis Thatcher - “better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt”. One Z-lister who seems to disregard both is Countdown numbers person Rachel Riley.
Rachel Riley

Ms Riley, as Zelo Street regulars will know, has tried to smear the Labour Party leadership, and indeed many of those who support it, as being anti-Semitic, only for it to be discovered that she had previously backed Mark Meechan, who styles himself Count Dankula, the amateur provocateur who got himself into trouble by training his partner’s dog to do a Nazi-style salute when he shouted “Gas the Jews”.

After this had been publicised, Ms Riley then declared “Defending this view is not a hill I will choose to die on”, and then did exactly that, as she endorsed some deeply unpleasant Twitter accounts, presumably after once again not doing her research. After that fiasco, others might have paused for thought. Not Ms Riley.
Noam Chomsky

After she had once again protested about what others say on Twitter, “More personal attacks on me by people joining in … This guy using my previous attempts to stand up for Jews as evidence I’m questionable Jewish and obliquely implying I could be Antisemitic” (why she doesn’t just block the account is not told), she then decided to go the whole nine yards and gratuitously smear a few more individuals.

Some of the messages were replying to tweets I couldn’t see, as the tweeter had blocked me [so block them back and move on] As far as I know, I’ve never had any dealings with this person, but their timeline shows support of those known to promote Antisemitism Loach, Bastani, Chomski [sic]. No surprise pro-Corbyn”. You read that right.
While Ken Loach has been accused of all manner of views he does not hold, he is not a promoter of anti-Semitism. Nor is Aaron Bastani of Novara Media. They are, however, both supportive of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of Labour, and as Ms Riley has already smeared him - wrongly - as an anti-Semite, they have to be smeared too.

But the real howler is for her to include Noam Chomsky in her list of anti-Semitism promoters. Why make such a foolish error? Why smear someone of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage as a promoter of anti-Semitism? It can only be because he, too, has made comments supportive of, and sympathetic to, the Labour leader.
Indeed, Noam Chomsky was the target of anti-Semitism during his childhood, as his native Philadelphia had a sizeable German community (Chomsky grew up in the city during the 1930s). Once more, Rachel Riley has opened mouth and inserted foot in no style at all. One can only wonder at the response of Channel 4 bosses to one of their minor slebs tarnishing one of their longest-established brands.

Needlessly associating Countdown with smear campaigns and appallingly bad research might not be the best of career moves. I’ll just leave that one there.
Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rachel who?

Anonymous said...

Seriously weird output from Ms Riley lately. The world is a mad place at the moment

Unknown said...

Noam chomsky is an absolute superstar, and he remains one of the purist thinkers the world has ever produced, to even mention his name in association with anything as deplorable as antisemitism is a disgrace, maybe this person should gag herself!..

Anonymous said...

This is so weird. It's like her account's been hijacked by a Gnasha/Collier troll or is she doing this for someone? She's totally destroying her reputation, what could possibly make that worth it?

MrMagic said...

At least her maths is better than her comments and spelling. I'm thinking she gets help on the show, wouldn't surprise me .

Unknown said...

If she doesn't know who the great Chomsky is, she shouldn't be commenting on anything. Stick to your sums & man utd love

MrMagic said...

Whoops there goes a mediocre career, I wonder if she gets help on that show.

Mark said...

I love how everyone she smears seem to be people I have the upmost respect for. Ms Riley on the other hand...

Jonathan said...

Rachel will be found on Channel 5 presenting Benefits Britain, a tale of washed up ex slabs who were caught out doing stupid foot in mouth stuff.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Channel 4 should next have her on 'Countdown' with a dustbin over her head. That way her delusional ranting and accusations will be too muffled for us to hear.

Unknown said...

Oh dear .Rachel. Rachel. .what were thinking.I insist you read some chomsky. You will feel so enlightened.maths isn't everything.

Unknown said...

she doesn't like Corbyn thats probably why she got the job on Channel 4 in the first place

Mark said...

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but if anyone does read anything she says on twitter about Chomsky they should then counter it with stuff like this https://chomsky.info/1989____/

As for the hoary old 'Ken Loach is A/S' line, is this still about the controversy surrounding his attempts to stage Jim Allen's play Perdition? Because frankly, the only other more recent stuff from Ken is his pro-Palestine stance. Surely an intelligent person like Rachel Riley (who can count and everything) isn't confusing condemnation of Israel's policies with a/s?

westpier said...

Riley appears to have had close involvement with the "Labour" MP's Ian Austin and Luciana Berger (maybe others), so no wonder her anti-Corbyn stance. Just another figurehead (ie. mild fame) for the Gnasher loons to cling to.

Anonymous said...

Bastani is indeed a raging antisemite and conspiracy theorist. Riley is facing some awful abuse for calling him out, don't be blaming the victim here.

She is wrong about Chomsky though.

Mark said...

It amuses me that she claims she has no intention of calling Chomsky an anti semite, rather a promotor of anti semitism. She seems to think she's above the playground antics of some of the twitterati attacking her, yet uses condescending language like 'Chomsky, your hero' which says everything about her opinion on him and that she thinks her opinion is greater than anyone elses.

Donal O'Driscoll said...

Excellent post. Rachel is an embarrassment at this stage.

Stephen Richards said...

Noam Chomsky's defence of free speech has clearly gone too far when he claims it should be allowed even to people who are wrong. Flat earthers? Creationists? Holocaust deniers? People who prefer fantasy over science fiction? And of course people who criticise others without bothering to check their facts.
Let's keep free speech for the righteous and infallible.

Thank you.

God bless God.