How Journalists Can Combat Antisemitism Through Their Reporting
Antisemitism has taken a front seat in public discourse lately thanks to several high profile incidents, including various comments by rapper Ye (formerly known as Kanye West). In a recent interview with conspiracy theorist and InfoWars operator Alex Jones, for example, Ye praised German Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler.. This has raised red flags around the nation about domestic threats; hate crimes against Jewish people are on the rise.
Journalists can play an active role in combating antisemitism while accurately reporting on it. What is the key to that? Jodi Rudoren, Editor In Chief of The Forward, an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience, warns thatnormal tactics may not work.
“Ignoring [anti-semites] isn't the same as some average hateful person,” she said. “You don't really want the message to be amplified, but with the situation with Kanye West [Ye] you have this tricky situation because his platform is bigger than most media platforms in terms of his own followers…The idea that people aren’t going to hear what he has to say if we don’t platform him is not really true.”
Holding antisemites to account is tricky, and is almost impossible to accomplish if interviewing them directly, as Ye’s interviews with the aforementioned Jones and journalist Chris Cuomo demonstrate.
There’s also the problem of subtlety—anti-semitism is not always overt, and several otherwise innocuous terms have antisemitic backgrounds or meanings when applied in specific contexts. For example, the current battle over “Merry Christmas” versus “Happy Holidays” is an antisemitic microaggression for its assertion that Christmas, a feast central to the Christian liturgical year, should take preference over other holidays celebrated throughout December.
Combating and explaining why these terms are antisemitic dog whistles is one of the more productive ways journalists can engage in this tricky atmosphere. It’s vital not to repeat any of these claims in a way that gives them validity. Instead, journalists should aim to expose the nonsense embedded in the claim and root out any microaggressions—or macroaggressions—against Jewish people.
Moreover, since the Israel-Palestine conflict has recently reentered international discourse, antisemites and other bad actors are attempting to conflate Jewish identity with Israeli politics. Former President Donald Trump has done this: on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump posted that “U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel.” Trump’s claim doesn’t take into account that American Jews have shown changing or nuancing attitudes regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. Blanket claims that all Jewish people support action by the Israeli government are inherently false. Moreover, several bad actors have equated criticism of Israeli politics with antisemitism, crafting the myth that Jews who are critical of Israel are somehow disloyal or unpatriotic. It’s vital to push back on these oversimplifications of a century-long struggle.
Finally, the other tentpole in exposing anti-semitism is to show just how much of the antisemitic claims hitting airwaves today are recycled conspiracy theories that can be traced back through history. Alex Jones promotes several of these conspiracy theories, including one about the “Jewish Mafia.” The idea of a secret organized crime ring run by Jewish people who rule parts of society is a conspiracy theory with roots even further back than Weimar Germany, the genesis of the rise of the Nazis. It’s important to draw these lines through history so that the general public can see just how often the same talking points are used to promote an antisemitic worldview.
However, one thing journalists do not want to do is start bringing up the Holocaust whenever antisemitism shows up. “The horror of the Holocaust is cheapened by the use of Holocaust analogies for incommensurate comparisons and/or political purposes,” said Carla Hill, director of investigative research at the Center on Extremism for the Anti-Defamation League. While these antisemitic dog whistles are absolutely dangerous and journalists must fight them on a daily basis, invoking the generational trauma of an entire people is a very poor way to combat that issue.
Best journalistic practices with some modifications come into play when dealing with antisemitism, no matter how loudly and proudly antisemites have decided to make their claims. Regular dissemination of the pertinent facts to continually undercut and spotlight antisemitic bad actors is tantamount. We can continue to combat anti-semitism as conscious, thoughtful citizens of the world and as journalists together.
