Polanski accuses Telegraph of ‘making up quotes’

Zack Polanski has accused the Telegraph of fabricating quotes. And he’s got good reason to do so, because the way the Telegraph presented the following information clearly gives an entirely false impression:

We're at the point where the Telegraph are literally making up quotes.

I said when veg is sold for pennies in supermarkets, it's a sign someone's not being paid properly.

Farmers being paid a pittance for their produce.

Workers on less than a living wage in supermarkets. https://t.co/rQOSII9l1p

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) June 9, 2026

‘This is not a quote’

Something we should explain is that there are two key ways of quoting people:

• Direct quote: A quote which presents what was said as written or spoken, indicated with “double inverted commas”.
• Paraphrase: A quote which alters the wording but retains the same meaning, indicated with ‘single inverted commas’.

As you can see above, the Telegraph used single inverted commas around ‘Food is too cheap’, indicating a paraphrase. The question is whether they’ve retained the same meaning. The answer – we believe – is no (or ‘yes’, if you’re the Telegraph).

By saying ‘food is too cheap’ rather than ‘veg is too cheap’, the impression given is that Polanski meant all food is too cheap. This is obviously very different to the point he actually made. And he didn’t even say all veg is too cheap either.

Here’s what the Telegraph reported about Polanski:

Speaking to the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union on Monday, he said: “That is not a sign of a healthy system. Someone is being exploited somewhere, and if you’re paying 7p for vegetables, then something is not right.

“It is those supermarket bosses who are taking record profits … meanwhile paying their workers poverty wages. We cannot go on like this.”

He called for tighter regulation of supermarkets, saying the sector had “not been regulated enough” and was exploiting “both the workers in the supermarkets and the farmers and agricultural workers”.

Even if they went with the more accurate ‘some veg is too cheap’, it wouldn’t really be a paraphrase of what he said. It would be a summary, certainly, but not a paraphrase given the gist of his wording.

An actually appropriate paraphrase would be something like:

‘7p veg a sign of exploitation’.

Or:

‘Supermarkets exploit farmers and their own workers’.

“Absolute bullsh*t” says Polanski

So yeah, it’s understandable Polanski has also now said:

Sections of the media are just absolute bullshit.

They’ve always been a problem – but now they’re literally lying and making up things that have never been said.

The only way to defeat the billionaire media is to organise around them.

The Media Reform Coalition backed him on this:

Zack is 100% right – our media is bullshit.

So join us & the Greens’ deputy leader @rachelmillward at the Media Democracy Festival, Sat 27 June, to build a democratic, independent media that serves us instead of billionaires: https://t.co/SJSs50vozv https://t.co/BuHbJ3hN9D

— Media Reform Coalition (@mediareformUK) June 9, 2026

This isn’t Polanski’s only run-in with the Telegraph this week either, as Ed Sykes reported for the Canary on 8 June:

Notorious pro–Israel bigot Stephen Pollard has written a desperate, antisemitic article trying to smear Zack Polanski. He did this in response to the Green leader backing calls to hold potential war criminals to account. And he did so in the Telegraph, which has joined other right-wing rags in publishing antisemitic Polanski caricatures.

The above is a direct quote of what Sykes wrote; a paraphrase would be ‘bigot Pollard smears Polanski as antisemitic’. You can see the difference, right?

We’re pretty sure the Telegraph can too; they’re simply lowering their editorial standards to attack a political enemy.

Featured image via Jeff J Mitchell (Getty Images)