Ian Austin suddenly being a director of the Jewish Chronicle is the least of its problems

The Canary reported recently on the scandal involving the Jewish Chronicle (JC), which involved the publishing of fake stories. It had published articles from a pro-Israel journalist for months which, according to some “senior Israeli analysts”, may have been “part of an influence campaign” from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

What needs to be highlighted much more in the wake of this scandal, however, is the JC’s long track record of dubious ethical behaviour, and its lasting links to high-profile propagandists on the right.

In particular, we should demand answers from its co-director Ian Austin, who sits in the House of Lords thanks to the Tories and taxpayers’ money; a fact neatly spotted by Red Collective:

Since @LordIanAustin became director of the Jewish Chronicle in August, 4 senior journalists have resigned, claiming numerous fabricated Israeli-favourable articles have been published. Given Ian sits in the UK taxpayer-funded House of Lords, he should explain this apparent link. pic.twitter.com/OWkcz7ltWf

— Red Collective (@RedCollectiveUK) September 24, 2024

The JC has long flown under anonymous ownership. But what we do know is that ‘Tory agent’ Robbie Gibb, who holds important positions at the BBC, “was the only director of the company that owns it until last month”.

We’ve long known about the BBC’s links to the Conservative Party, but in the wake of the JC scandal, numerous groups have called into question Gibb’s fitness to continue having any role in influencing editorial positions at the public broadcaster – especially regarding the Israeli state’s genocide in Gaza.

After Gibb resigned in August, Ian Austin became a director, along with venture capitalist Jonathan Kandel. So they took over the role just before the scandal broke. And while Gibb has seemingly slipped away quietly, Austin also appears to have kept his new role on the down-low.

On X, for example, we failed to find any mention from him about becoming a director of the JC. Gibb, meanwhile, “remains the sole director of the JC Media and Culture Preservation Initiative… which shares a correspondence address with the Jewish Chronicle”.

The Jewish Chronicle and an anti-progressive smear campaign

In early 2020, the Jewish Chronicle (JC) was failing. It had been a key part of vicious media efforts to keep former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn out of power. But having succeeded in aiding the anti-Corbyn campaign, it announced it was having to close down.

A rescue squad of thoroughly unsavoury hacks then swooped in, though. The group included: John Ware, the man responsible for the highly controversial 2019 Panorama hit-job against Corbyn and his party; former BBC editor and Tory adviser Robbie Gibb; former Labour warhawk John Woodcock; and Israeli-state apologist Jonathan Sacerdoti, who was once a spokesperson for the highly controversial Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) and bragged in 2018 about “weaponising” antisemitism to get rid of Corbyn.

As Jonathan Cook highlighted at Middle East Eye, the JC had a “deeply problematic track record” long before the current scandal, with many “scandalous breaches of both the law and media ethics” over recent years.

As he explained, even “the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), the feeble “regulator” created and financed by the billionaire-owned corporate media, has repeatedly found the paper guilty of breaching its code of practice”. He added:

According to the research of journalist and academic Brian Cathcart, in the five years to 2023, the paper broke the code an astonishing 41 times. The Chronicle has also lost, or been forced to settle, at least four libel cases. Writing about these failings, Cathcart called the large number of violations “off the scale” for a small weekly publication.

And he continued by stressing that:

Notably, many of the JC’s press-code violations and libel settlements related to its false allegations against either Palestinian solidarity organisations or members of the Labour left. The Chronicle served as the chief attack dog on Corbyn and his allies, stoking fears among prominent sections of the Jewish community. It began that campaign early on, when Corbyn first emerged as a candidate for the leadership.

Corporate media outlets then amplified this coverage. And the JC knew what it was doing. As the former chair Alan Jacobs said in 2020, funders could “be proud that their combined generosity allowed the JC to survive long enough to help to see off Jeremy Corbyn and friends”.

Never forget the anti-left media crusade. And never stop resisting it.

Cook insisted that, under Corbyn’s leadership of Labour, the Jewish Chronicle (JC):

led the pressure on British institutions, including the Labour Party, to adopt a new definition of antisemitism that conflated criticism of Israel with hatred of Jews. Israel was the original driving force behind this new definition.

And he concluded:

it was precisely the relentless bullying and silencing of voices critical of Israel through the Corbyn years that helped pave the way for Israel’s current slaughter and maiming of tens of thousands of Palestinian children.

The pro-Israel right’s vile and cynical weaponisation of antisemitism allegations to attack left-wing allies of the Palestinian people was a key moment not only in Britain’s history, but for the world. Because if outlets like the Jewish Chronicle could divisively and falsely claim that Jeremy Corbyn – a longstanding anti-racist campaigner and peace–prize winner – was somehow an “existential threat” to Jewish people in Britain, and get away with it, what couldn’t the propaganda machine achieve?

Corbyn represented a danger to the status quo domestically and internationally, because he wasn’t afraid to criticise the crimes of Israeli colonialism or stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

He marked a clear ethical break from the Labour Party’s corporate warmongering and corrupt foreign policy in previous years. It was easy to unite all the forces for evil in the world against him. And that’s what happened.

We must never forget the anti-left media crusade that helped to pave the way for the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Because it didn’t stop after neutralising Corbyn. The propaganda war continues today.

And we can only build a better, more compassionate world, if we unite and mobilise to counter that propaganda – not least from the Jewish Chronicle.

Featured image via the Canary