The media really is not fair to left wing politicians
JVL Introduction
Here Jonathan Cook has taken apart the ways in which and the reasons why the legacy media traps left wing politicians by posing questions such as “do you condemn Hamas” rather than allow the interviewee to answer questions, recognise and address nuances and so on. Of course, this is not only in relation to Palestine and Israel, although this is blatantly done with those supporting Israel never asked if Israel, in its current form, has a right to exist? There is plenty of “do you condemn Hamas” but no “do you condemn the IDF and the government behind it?
The status quo has to be seen as normal and the only way for societies to be organised. You do not have to be a revolutionary to argue that wealth should be more equitably shared; instead we are constantly told the myth that this has been acquired by hard work that should be suitably rewarded. Of course if hard work was actually equated with wealth then African women in rural areas ought to be amongst the richest people in the world. But I digress: Cook’s article may tell you what you already know but it should also help you to spot the tricks and share them with others,
Below Cook’s article is an analysis of the Nick Robinson/Zack Polanski interview referred to in Cook’s article as posted on X by Ben Jamal, until recently Director of the UK Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
(please note that in the original post, there is a 1.5 minute video of Nick Robinson “interviewing” Zack Polanski that I am unable to embed, do please check it out via the link bwlow)
This article was originally published by Substack on Sat 10 Oct 2026. Read the original here.
How the BBC sets a trap to make sure leftwing politicians never get a fair hearing
There’s a reason why so few truly leftwing politicians are visible in public life. Because the media’s role is to weed them out, discredit them, place them beyond the pale
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“What we’re talking about is whether a state created by the United Nations, in the aftermath of pogroms and Holocaust, the worst act of racism in the history of the planet, has a right to exist or not. This is a question you have always dodged.”
On the subject of the Holocaust, it is worth pointing out the deeply disturbing fact that the British government knew about it whilst it was going on:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/27/britain-knew-about-holocaust-as-it-happened-exhibition
Nearly 40 years ago Noam Chomsky & Edward Herman published their classic book ‘Manufacturing Consent’. It showed how (and why) the American media filtered out almost everything that didn’t suit dominant interests. Sadly it is still true of how the British media covers many topics, especially Zionism.
Yellow journalism by yellow joyrnoars trying to nake their fame. Many if them have no educated undersranding of history in that region.
Robinson states that the pogroms and holacaust was the worst in all history on the planet. What a stupid statement to make. Many genocide scholars would disagree with that.
The UN passed the motion but they didn’t create the state. That was down to zionist lobbying of politicians which in turn led to those countries pursuing a state.
Joe and Jane Bloggs know more about yhe history than these yellow journalists. I loathe to call them journalists…they are more like gossip mongers.
Robinson being very picky in his referencing of the UN. If Israel’s conquest of Palestine was so uniformly approved of by the UN, strange they passed Resolution 3379 stating ‘Zionism was a form of racism’? – which of course is omitted from his account. Also, if being victim of the Nazis gives you a carte blanch on colonial slaughter, what special dispensation should the Nazis other victims be given? Even omitting the Nakba against Palestinians, which for him is too minor to be given prominence, there is also the killings of British Soldiers and international observers. For example, ‘the Sergeants Affair’, where two British soldiers were murdered by Irgun, then their bodies booby-trapped to get the colleagues of their burial party. By failing to mention Israel’s Apartheid he similarly fails to mention the potential threat it poses to the 18% of our population who are Black, Asian, Mixed-Race, Ethnic Other who might be unfortunate enough to find themselves within Israel’s borders. It should be recalled that after the story broke of Fatima Boudchar’s rendition while 5 months pregnant – which cost the state a Prime Ministerial apology and £0.5mil in compensation -Robinson interviewed Tony Blair and did not even mention her existence.
one final point, the UN that Robinson cites as supporting Israel’s invention, was at that time dominated by the white West. The Black and Brown homelands of the world had yet to be decolonised in great numbers. Hardly surprising that attitudes at the UN subsequently changed leading to Resolution 3379.
The “Today Programme” epitomises the workings of the present BBC. I saw (on YouTube I think) the Robinson interview with Polanski which was one of the most aggressively bombastic I’ve ever witnessed, an almost violent attack which brooked no answers to the smirkingly delivered questions longer than a few words before the signature interruptions of interviewers on that wretched programme blasted in.