New report details the Spectator’s ‘systematic, sustained, & measurable problem with Muslims’

On 14 July, the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) published a shocking – but sadly unsurprising – report into the stark Islamophobia on display at the Spectator, the UK’s oldest political magazine.

The CfMM is an independent non-profit organisation which monitors the representation of Islam in the mainstream media. For its latest report, entitled ‘No Mere Spectator’, it presented comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analysis:

of 3,733 articles published by The Spectator between January 2018 and December 2025 relating to Islam, Muslims, Muslim communities, Muslim-majority countries, or issues in which Muslims were a central subject of discussion.

From this analysis, it concluded that the magazine:

does not merely comment on Muslims and Islam but consistently constructs them as a problem, and that it does so while invoking the language of free speech to place that coverage beyond criticism.

Spectator dismissing and perpetuating Islamophobia

The CfMM study found that just over 57% of the Spectator’s articles were either ‘biased’ or ‘very biased’ against Muslims. Meanwhile, it rated just 11.6% as ‘not biased’.

This effect was even more pronounced for articles which specifically centered on the subject of Islamophobia. A massive 72.8% were either biased or very biased, whereas just 2% were unbiased. In particular, the report stated that: 

Rather than treating anti-Muslim prejudice as a form of discrimination requiring serious consideration, articles frequently characterise concerns about Islamophobia as attempts to suppress criticism, restrict free speech, obstruct counter-extremism efforts or shield Islam from scrutiny. The effect is to recast protections against discrimination as threats to liberal values.

This bias was notably visible in the magazine’s treatment of the topic of terrorism and political violence. The report observed a “persistent tendency” to conflate Islam, Islamism, and extremist movements. It also added that:

The Conflict and Terrorism coverage presents acts of “Islamist” violence not as the product of specific extremist ideologies but as expressions of Islam’s inherent character, while consistently minimising and relativising far-right terrorism. This includes its response to the Christchurch massacre, where the murder of 51 Muslims in their places of worship was used primarily as a vehicle to attack those who raised concerns about anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Complicity with the far right

Meanwhile, the Spectator repeatedly framed Muslim political advocacy and campaigning as evidence of extremism or ‘disproportionate influence’. What for any other community would be perfectly ordinary participation in democracy instead became sinister, sectarian and “uniquely problematic” for Muslims.

The magazine also displayed a deeply alarming ideological complicity with the narratives of the far right. This included presenting ‘great replacement’ arguments alongside mainstream political commentary, and even framing Muslims’ participation in society as invasion.

The CfMM stated that this repeated pattern went far beyond “isolated editorial lapses”, and that its relationship to the far right was well past the mere “toleration of editorial opinion”. The report held that this relationship was:

cemented by the political affiliations of The Spectator’s new owner, hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall. Marshall bought the magazine for £100 million in September 2024 and is co-owner and founder of GB News as well as owner of UnHerd. Marshall’s media titles are highly influential vehicles for the circulation of right-wing and anti-Muslim content. According to the Media Reform Coalition, GB News and The Spectator have regularly been found in breach of broadcasting and editorial standards by Ofcom and the press regulator IPSO.

In the pockets of billionaires

The CfMM’s work in general, and ‘No Mere Spectator’ in particular, is important precisely because it provides robust, evidence based backing for what Muslims in the UK have recognised for decades: this country’s mainstream media outlets emit a distinct and longstanding bias against Islam and its adherents.

Our attitudes as a society are shaped by the things we read about our communities and others. That’s why, as the Canary has previously reported, a handful of billionaires have pumped more than £170 million into the UK’s populist right-wing ecosystem over the last five years. Alex/Rose Cocker wrote that:

The £170 million was split between populist-right MPs and political parties, alongside their aligned media organisations and thinktanks. Of that, more than £130 million came from just four sources: crypto investor Chris Harborne, financier Jeremy Hosking, hedge fund manager Paul Marshall, and investment firm Legatum.

The UK’s media, and our society’s opinions along with it, are being bought wholesale by the ultra-rich right. They profit from our hatred and division, and use Islamophobia as a tool of distraction and influence – to the ongoing devastation of the Muslims in the UK and around the world.

Featured image via the Canary