The Panorama programme – a compilation of critical comments

This compilation contains

1. Last night, the BBC edited a Labour email and broadcast the hit job to millions, James Wright, The Canary, 11 July 2019

On the doctoring of a Labour email to show Seamus Milne and Labour in a bad light.

2. Jeremy Corbyn is Attacked Because He is Anti-Capitalist, not Anti-Semitic, Tommy Sheridan, Sputnik News, 12th July 2019

3. Same Executive Producer on three Channel 4 and BBC anti-Corbynite programmes revealed as former Labour activist, Tom Pride, tompride.wordpress.com, 12 Jul 2019

Someone has it in for Corbyn and is given free range to express his hatred on MSM.

4. Former Labour Party investigator caught lying in BBC Panorama interview Johnny Beggs, Facebook 12 July 2019

Investigator Ben Westerman claimed he had been asked  if he came from Israel and implied  this was antisemitic. He hadn’t – he was asked what Labour party branch he came from…

Plus:

Who is John Ware? See various articles in The Lobster over the years from the nineties onwards.

1. Last night, the BBC edited a Labour email and broadcast the hit job to millions

Source: James Wright, The Canary, 11 July 2019

On 10 July, the BBC stood accused of “doctoring’ a Labour email. The public organisation then broadcast the result to millions – not once, but twice.

“Clear misrepresentation”

The broadcaster first showed the edited email during a Panorama episode entitled Is Labour Antisemitic?. It later discussed it on BBC News at 10. The BBC repeated the misrepresentation even though Labour complained:

The edited email presented Labour’s director of communications Seumas Milne as interfering in the party’s disciplinary process, which is supposed to be independent. The publicly-funded broadcaster’s version of Milne’s email read:

something’s going wrong, and we’re muddling up political disputes with racism… I think going forward we need to review where and how we’re drawing the line.

But Labour released the full email, which shows that Milne was responding to a request from a former Labour staff member for a view on a complaint. And in the email, he wrote:

Having identified the subject of the complaint as a “Jewish activist, the son of Holocaust survivor”… if we’re more than very occasionally using disciplinary action against Jewish members for anti-Semitism, something’s going wrong and we’re muddling up political disputes with racism.

In response, a BBC spokesperson told The Canary:

The BBC stands by its journalism and we completely reject any accusations of bias or dishonesty… The programme [Panorama] adhered to the BBC’s editorial guidelines, including a full right of reply for the Labour Party.

We reject any claims Panorama took any of the evidence out of context.

The significance of the email from Seumas Milne is that it showed one of the most powerful figures in the Labour Party expressing concern about the handling of anti-semitism complaints and suggesting the wider process should be reviewed. This goes contrary to the Labour Party’s claims that this process was independent of the Leader’s Office. The impact of this email on those dealing with the complaints process was made clear in the eyewitness testimony shown in the programme.

“Wrong kind of Jews”

But in response to a request, Milne was specifically talking about Jewish people being accused of antisemitism. The quote Panorama used omitted that.

Effectively, Milne warned against Labour participating in the ‘wrong sort of Jew’ antisemitic trope in the email. Because the subject of the antisemitism complaint in question was a “Jewish activist” and “the son of Holocaust survivor”.

Corbyn’s political opponents routinely attack Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) – an organisation of Jewish Labour members – along similar lines:

We are denounced as the wrong kind of Jews, not actually members of the Jewish Community… ‘antisemitism enablers’ and other insulting terms.

The Labour right and corporate media have also accused Corbyn of antisemitism for meeting up with Jewish people, such as hosting Jewish Holocaust survivors in parliament and attending a Jewish Sedar (Passover feast).

Meanwhile, disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism among Labour members since September 2015 relate to 0.06% of party’s 540,000-strong membership. Labour says:

This represents a tiny minority, but one antisemite is one too many, and we will continue to act against this repugnant form of racism.

“Doctored by Panorama”

On social media, people were aghast at the BBC‘s conduct:

Even corporate journalists like the FT‘s chief political correspondent suggested that the BBC is misleading viewers:

This time, the BBC has stepped way over the line. Labour had complained that the broadcaster was completely misrepresenting Milne’s email. Yet it broadcast the selective edit twice to millions of people. That is utterly unacceptable conduct towards the official opposition.

Featured image via BBC

2. Jeremy Corbyn is Attacked Because He is Anti-Capitalist, not Anti-Semitic

Source: Tommy Sheridan, Sputnik News, 12th July 2019

It was sixty minutes of unsubstantiated allegations, disgruntled gripes, ridiculous verbal insults and pathetic accusations. Most of the dross was delivered with the sincerity of tears rolling down a crocodile’s scaly skin as it drags its latest unsuspecting prey underwater to be devoured.

All of it presented by a jackal in human form with a track-record of Corbyn bashing that should have disqualified him from ever being commissioned by a ‘public service’ broadcaster to present the programme. I’m talking about Panorama’s ‘Is Labour Anti-Semitic?’ and the former Sun journalist John Ware who presented it, no doubt drawing on his vehemently anti-Corbyn notes used in 2015 to present ‘Jeremy Corbyn: Labour’s Earthquake’.

That Panorama show was widely condemned for its overt bias against Jeremy Corbyn and attracted several hundred complaints from viewers. It was broadcast several days before the ballot for the Labour leadership contest in 2015 closed and many believed it was an attempt to divert potential votes away from Corbyn. The Corbyn campaign team were furious at the lack of balance and use of factual inaccuracies compelling one source to accuse the BBC of conducting “a complete hatchet job” on Mr Corbyn.

Panorama producers apparently told them they were filming for a documentary about the Labour leadership campaign as a whole, including all four candidates, but instead the programme turned out to be all about the one candidate, as the title of the show suggests, and only included a few brief clips of his three rivals.

His campaign team at the time sent a copy of Mr Corbyn’s diary to prove he did not attend a conference in Cairo that advocated attacks on British and American troops, as was stated by the programme’s presenter, John Ware. The diary proved he attended events in his Islington constituency on the date of the said conference.

So after being misled before and publicly traduced and lied about in 2015 it is understandable that Labour were less than happy about the BBC giving public licence fee payers’ money to the same programme and the same presenter to produce another show to present another sixty minutes of anti-Jeremy Corbyn propaganda on behalf of the powerful and the privileged who are in a state of fear and alarm at the prospect of a Corbyn led government introducing legislation that will actually compel the millionaires and billionaires to pay their bloody taxes.

The ‘hatchet job’ in 2015 didn’t prevent Corbyn winning the Labour leadership election comfortably days later with 60% of the votes cast, and the tirade of abuse, lies, distortions and personal insults that followed didn’t prevent him from increasing his majority in the second leadership contest in 2016 with 62% of the votes cast.

The biggest crime Corbyn then committed was to present the most radical and socialist manifesto in Labour’s post-war history to the electorate in the snap General Election called by Theresa May in 2017.

All her advisors and friendly pollsters told her it was a certainty that the Tories would win a huge mandate and Labour under Corbyn would be destroyed. Just about every single political pundit and newspaper columnist agreed. Many predicted the worst result in Labour Party history. Every single one of them was wrong. These so-called pundits were in touch with each other and the comfortable media jet setters who consult their mirrors daily for pearls of worldly wisdom based on nothing more than what they all say to each other over expensive lunches and swanky dinners but they were completely out of touch with real people in real housing estates struggling with real problems like low pay, job insecurity, rising fuel and housing costs and deteriorating public services.

What Corbyn’s socialist manifesto did in 2017 was prove that radical ideas of wealth redistribution, re-nationalisation of stolen public assets like gas, electricity, water and railways and forcing big business and millionaires to pay their taxes are actually very popular policies. After nearly a decade of austerity cuts for the millions but tax cuts for the millionaires, many people wanted to see fairness and justice, not more of the same old Tory policies designed to serve the wealthy and powerful.

Sure Corbyn’s message was severely blunted in Scotland because he refuses to support independence and therefore Labour’s vote share hardly moved but in England and Wales, the increase in the Labour share of the vote was the biggest since 1945.

It was a truly remarkable result in the midst of the tsunami of media attacks manufactured against him. All those out of touch narcissists paid to tell us what to think should have resigned en masse on the back of their Corbyn demise predictions but their personal egos and remarkable ability to forget how wrong they were saved their bacons. They were told to try harder to convince us all that Corbyn is an evil man who will bring nothing but pain and darkness should he ever be elected.

And that is the narrative which leads us back to the Panorama ‘Is Labour Anti-Semitic?’ programme. For years Corbyn has been attacked as being anti-British, anti-monarchy, anti-business and anti-Semitic. He is untrustworthy and can never be allowed to enter No10. Even US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, recently suggested that the US would take steps to prevent a Corbyn Labour Government.

The truth is now subverted daily and outrageous claims and unsubstantiated allegations are converted into truths by a powerful media machine desperate to save their own. There is nothing independent about the BBC. It represents the interests of the wealthy and powerful, the status quo, the stinking rich British Establishment. The privately owned media is dripping with hatred for Corbyn and any threat to their massive fortunes but the apparently ‘independent’ BBC and the so-called ‘quality’ press, like the Guardian and Independent, are just as biased and often more dangerous given their wolves in sheep’s clothing existence.

I didn’t watch the Panorama programme with an open mind because I was convinced it had already set out to attack and abuse Corbyn and his reputation. I wasn’t wrong.

Take one woman’s incredible unchallenged tirade:

“I joined the Labour Party in 2015. The anti-Semitic abuse I received was what I was subjected to every single day … telling me Hitler was right … telling me Hitler didn’t go far enough. In Labour Party meetings we saw people engage in Holocaust denial. I don’t think the Labour Party is a safe space for Jewish people anymore.”

That is a verbatim report of what was said on a UK wide BBC Flagship show at the 9 pm primetime slot. Is this what journalism has been reduced to?

A woman says she was subjected to anti-Semitic abuse “every single day”. Not a jot of evidence.

Labour Party members telling her “Hitler was right”? Not only unsubstantiated nonsense but grotesquely offensive nonsense.

Socialists were the very first group of opponents targeted and rounded up for imprisonment and execution by Hitler. Socialists and trade union organisers. It is in the DNA of socialists to oppose and hate Hitler and all that he stood for.

That claim made by that woman on that show sums up how completely pathetic and manufactured the whole show was. This person apparently joined Labour in 2015 and was subjected to anti-Semitic abuse “every single day”? But it took her 4 years of daily anti-Semitic abuse before she could conclude the Labour Party is no longer a “safe space” for Jewish people? Investigative journalism at its finest…

Then there was the Corbyn bashing repeat offender presenter Mr Ware displaying his remarkable psychic powers for our gratification. In a section dedicated to the comments and subsequent 2-year suspension from party membership of Ken Livingston he displayed abilities that would make Charles Francis Xavier of The X-Men green with envy:

“… some staff grinned in Mr Corbyn’s office we’ve been told as they watched news of what Ken Livingston had said. Most thought his comments were not that bad”.

This is another verbatim section from the show. A primetime, investigative journalism programme and we have the presenter nipping back in time three years to not only inform us what “some staff” did, they “grinned” but what most of them “thought”? Really? It was three years ago, he wasn’t there but he is able to state on primetime TV in the course of a supposedly serious news gathering investigative journalist programme what “most” staff in an office “thought”. They “thought his comments were not that bad”.

If this was not so serious it would be a good laugh but the reputation of a man with a spotless record of fighting against racism, bigotry, anti-Semitism and injustice throughout his adult life is on the line here and it is vital that all people who believe in a fair hearing, natural justice and evidence-based accusations stand up in defence of Jeremy Corbyn.

I will not vote for Labour in Scotland because they refuse to support our inalienable right to secure our independence but I will raise my voice in defence of a socialist who does not have an anti-Semitic or racist bone in his whole body.

Panorama deliberately and consciously quoted selectively from acquired emails to falsely portray a story of interference in the disputes procedures by the party leadership office when the full emails in context showed the complete opposite to be the case. It represents shoddy and disreputable journalism.

Supporters gather as Britain’s opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn attends a European Parliament election campaign rally in Bootle, north England on May 18, 2019.

According to every piece of reputable quantitative research, the 500,000 strong membership of the Labour Party are less likely to be anti-Semitic than members of the Tory Party or the general public and anti-Semitic views have actually reduced substantially within the Labour Party since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader in 2015.

Instead of unsubstantiated allegations from disgruntled individuals and ridiculous time travelling thought analysis from a ridiculously biased presenter why not air independent quantitative research on the issue?

Why not report the fact that less than 1% of Labour Party members are subject to anti-Semitism complaints and detailed analysis of society as whole shows clearly that those who hold right-wing political views are significantly more likely to be anti-Semitic than those who share Jeremy Corbyn’s left-wing views?

Jeremy Corbyn is subjected to sustained and offensive attacks by the billionaire owned and state-controlled media not because he is allegedly anti-Semitic but because he is anti-capitalist. The ruling elites in Britain and internationally fear Jeremy Corbyn because his principles are not for sale and his redistributive socialist policies are radical and serious. Expect the attacks and abuse to get worse and even more sustained the nearer we get to a General Election. Just as in 2017 however, hopefully, the people of England and Wales will reject the lies and vote for the sensible socialist policies he promotes.

*Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of Tommy Sheridan and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

3. Same Executive Producer on three Channel 4 and BBC anti-Corbynite programmes revealed as former Labour activist

Source: Tom Pride, tompride.wordpress.com, 12 Jul 2019

When Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party, BBC Panorama aired an anti-Corbyn programme – Jeremy Corbyn Labour’s Earthquake –  about the rise of Jeremy Corbyn’s popularity in what was then called a hatchet job by Corbyn’s team:

But the programme was not made by the BBC. It was made by a private production company called Films of Record whose managing director and executive producer was at that time someone by the name of Neil Grant.

Another anti-Corbyn programme was aired about a year later on a different channel – Channel 4’s Dispatches. The programme – Battle for the Labour Party – is so anti-Corbyn, it prompted a written complaint to the producer about the programme’s “inaccuracies” and “slurs”.

But the programme was also not made by Channel 4. It was made by exactly the same private production company – Films of Record:

The same Films of Record whose managing director and executive producer was still someone called Neil Grant:

Which brings us to the latest anti-Corbyn programme aired this week attacking Labour with antisemitism smears.

Who was the Executive Producer?

Yep. The same Neil Grant, now no longer working for Films of Record but still very much being used as an executive producer by Panorama:

So who exactly is this Neil Grant, being given massive mounts of airtime across the airwaves on UK broadcasting media to attack Corbyn?

An investigative journalist?

Nope. Just an anti-Corbynite former Labour activist and former Brent East Labour Party chair who has had a 20-year political falling out with Ken Livingstone.

And while we’re on the same subject, who is Rachel Jupp, the Editor of the same Panorama programme:

Just the sister-in-law of anti-Corbynite Labour MP Helen Hayes who once signed a vote of no-confidence in Corbyn.

That’s all.

4. Former Labour Party investigator caught lying in BBC Panorama interview.

Source: Johnny Beggs, Facebook 12 July 2019

Former Labour Party investigator caught lying in BBC Panorama interview.

Last night’s Panorama ‘investigation’ was a hotch-potch of lies and unattributed quotes, all overlain with sinister B-movie music. It was clearly an attempt to stitch up Jeremy Corbyn.

We listened here in Liverpool very carefully. Our Riverside constituency was put in special measures in 2016, and investigated by an antisemitism ‘expert’, Ben Westerman.

Mr Westerman featured on the programme, and claimed that he had been asked during one of the six interviews he conducted here if he came from Israel. He implied that this was antisemitic.

Mr Westerman is not telling the truth.

No-one knew Mr Westerman was Jewish, and no-one asked him about coming from Israel. He is attempting to use his Jewishness to smear another (Jewish!) Party member.

It is a provable lie because all the interviews were recorded by us.

The transcript of the conversation with an elderly Jewish comrade, who was acting as the interviewee’s silent friend, goes like this. The initials R signifies the interviewee’s Silent Friend, present at the interview.

Ben W: (To R) Ok. Do you want to…?
R: No, I’m just curious cos I haven’t been in the Labour Party for very long and I certainly haven’t been to anything like this informal interview before, erm, so I’m just curious, just, like what branch are you in?
Ben W: I don’t think that’s relevant.
R: Oh, ok.
Ben W: I hope that’s ok -, I’m sorry I just don’t think, I don’t think where I’m from is at all relevant to the investigation… [NOTE He hasn’t been asked ‘where he’s from’, he’d been asked what branch he is in – Johnny Beggs]
R: Yeah, I just, I just misunderstood, I thought the investigation bit about me not being a silent witness was…
Ben W: No, no it is, you’re more than welcome to ask questions, but I reserve the right to not answer them and I feel that’s a, that’s a question about my personal situation which I don’t think is relevant to the situation in Riverside.
R: Oh. No, it might not be. Just but, it might be interesting.
Ben W: I’m, I’m not prepared to discuss my, my address, basically. [NOTE: He had not been asked for his address! – Johnny Beggs]
R: Mmm. [EXTRACT ENDS]

After a few more brief sentences from the interviewee (also Jewish) the exchange ended. Nothing was said after the interview, as was claimed by Mr Westerman on PANORAMA.

In the PANORAMA programme Mr Westerman claims he was asked “Where are you from?” As the transcript shows, he was actually asked about his branch affiliation. Mr Westerman looks VERY SORRY FOR HIMSELF, hurt and near to tears, and goes on to say, speaking of himself, “You are assumed to be in cahoots with the Israeli government…it’s this obsession that spills over all the time into antisemitism.”

So, by enquiring about Mr Westerman’s branch affiliation, the elderly (Jewish!) Party member was deemed to be implying Mr Westerman was “in cahoots with the Israeli government”, and therefore antisemitic!

Neither the interviewee or her silent friend had any idea Mr Westerman was Jewish – and neither would have deemed it relevant.

Both the interviewee and her silent friend referenced their own Jewish heritage during the interview. Mr Westerman did not.

None of the six Riverside members interviewed by Mr Westerman knew of his Jewish heritage – it was not relevant in any case.

Mr Westerman’s Jewishness only becomes relevant when he tries to use it for political purposes. He now claims that not only did one of us know of his heritage, but that this comrade implied he was working on behalf of Israel – simply because she posed an innocent question enquiring about his Party branch affiliation.

How far does this distortion and misrepresentation spread through the Panorama ‘investigation’?

NOTE The recordings of the six interviews will be made available shortly.