I will now delve into the situation at the politically left-wing Channel Four in the United Kingdom as it was in 2016 before publishing a separate piece updating it to 2026. In the first instance it is well to point out that Channel Four is a reference to one of the five major British television channels with channels one and two being run by the BBC, channel three by ITV and channel five by the eponymous Channel 5.
Channel Four is owned and operated by the Channel Four Television Company, which was set up in 1981. There were six CEOs of the Channel Four Television Company between 1981 and 2016.
These were:
Sir Jeremy Isaacs (1981 to 1987)
Sir Michael Grade (1987 to 1997)
Michael Jackson (1997 to 2001)
Mark Thompson (2002 to 2004)
Andy Duncan (2004 to 2010)
David Abraham (2010 to 2016 [he later stepped down in 2017])
Of these Sir Jeremy Isaacs, (1) Sir Michael Grade (2) and David Abraham were/are jewish. (3)
This means that half of the CEOs of the Channel Four Television Corporation – and therefore those who control the strategy and general direction of the channel’s programming and coverage – were jewish up to 2016.
Jews were 0.6 percent of the population of the United Kingdom (using the ‘Expanded Jewish Population’ figure to take into account non-religious/secular jews i.e. 370,000 out of a population of 63,182,000) in 2016. (4) This equates jews being 83 times more numerous among Channel Four CEOs when compared to their demographic representation in the British population.
This necessarily suggests that Channel Four is likely to have a pro-jewish bias.
Indeed the then CEO of Channel Four David Abraham made this very clear when he argued in ‘The Independent’ in 2011 that because Channel Four’s ‘Dispatches’ program had run an expose on the Israel Lobby in Britain; it therefore made his media company more ‘fair and balanced’ (i.e. pro-Israel but willing to at least seem to be critically-minded) than other major media organisations like the BBC. (5)
This pro-Israel bias with a willingness to seem to be critical is easily demonstrated when we look at Channel Four’s News Team, which comprises the following individuals in 2016:
Jon Snow – Presenter
Krishnan Guru-Murthy – Presenter
Cathy Newman – Presenter
Matt Frei – Europe Editor
Alex Thomson – Chief Correspondent
Paul Mason – Economics Editor
Gary Gibbon – Political Editor
Lindsey Hilsum – International Editor
Jackie Long – Social Affairs Editor and Presenter
Tom Clarke – Science Editor
Geoff White – Technology Producer
Liam Dutton – Weather Presenter
Michael Crick – Political Correspondent
Jonathan Miller – Asia Correspondent
Simon Israel – Home Affairs Correspondent
Andy Davies – Home Affairs Correspondent
Darshna Soni – Home Affairs Correspondent
Ciaran Jenkins – North of England Correspondent
Siobhan Kennedy – Business Editor
Helia Ebrahimi – Business Correspondent
Jonathan Rugman – Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Guillermo Galdos – Latin America Correspondent
Kylie Morris – Washington Correspondent
Victoria MacDonald – Health and Social Care Correspondent
Keme Nzerem – Sports Correspondent
Jordan Jarrett-Bryan – Sports Reporter
Paraic O’Brien – Correspondent
Fatima Manji – Reporter
Jamal Osman – Reporter
Of these individuals only two are jewish.
These are Paul Mason (7) and Simon Israel. (8)
In addition there is a possibility that Lindsey Hilsum could be. (9) While Cathy Newman has been accused of being jewish and has openly denied it although it subsequently came out that her family believes they are of jewish origin. (10)
This therefore equates to 6.9 percent of the Channel Four News Team being jewish or some 11 times their representation in the British population.
If you include Hilsum and Newman as being jewish then these figures change to 13.8 percent of the News Team being jewish, which is 23 times their representation in the British population.
Mason – like many of his colleagues – is pro-Israel and sympathetic to Zionism, but does not hold (as many right-wing Zionists do) that criticism of Israel is always simply a ‘veil for anti-Semitism’. (11)
Similar views are – according to my research – held by Matt Frei, (12) Alex Thomson, (13) Lindsey Hilsum, (14) Jonathan Rugman, (15) Kylie Morris (16) and Guillermo Galdos. (17)
In addition Matt Frei, (18) Alex Thomson, (19) Gary Gibbon (20) and Keme Nzerem (21) have also independently expressed strong pro-jewish sentiments.
Meanwhile Cathy Newman has positively outdone herself by savagely attacking Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (who is himself jewish) (22) for alleged ‘anti-Semitism’ among critics of Israel in his political party. (23) Further she openly demanded that all those whom she deems ‘trolls’ be subject to immediate prosecution and public humiliation for saying things that she doesn’t like. (24)
This makes the pro-Zionist camp within Channel Four’s News Team some eleven strong, which translates to 38 percent of the team being pro-Israel.
Compare that to only three members of the same News Team being strongly anti-Zionist.
To be specific these are: Jon Snow, (25) Jackie Long (26) and Michael Crick. (27)
That said Kylie Morris has been falsely accused of ‘promoting terrorism’ (i.e., being pro-Palestinian) by CAMERA (a hard-line Zionist organization run by a former member of Israeli intelligence), (28) while Fatima Manji has been attacked by jewish organizations for wearing a headscarf. (29)
Thus we can see that the anti-Zionist camp within Channel Four’s News Team is only three strong, which translates to 10 percent of the team being anti-Israel.
This confirms my point about Abraham’s boast that he was effectively less pro-Israel than other British television channels, because he maintains a veneer of criticism against the state of Israel. However when the pro-Israel segment of the Channel Four News Team outnumbers the anti-Israel segment of the team by four to one (i.e. eleven staff members versus three).
Then one is forced to wonder just how ‘fair and balanced’ Channel Four’s position on Israel really is.
References
(1) http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/doc/435530509.html
(2) http://www.thejc.com/arts/arts-interviews/46372/interview-michael-grade
(3) http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/26403/david-abraham-new-chief-executive-channel-4
(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_population_by_country; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_United_Kingdom
(5) http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/david-abraham-channel-5-thinks-its-clever-but-were-still-the-no-1-6258234.html
(6) http://www.channel4.com/news/news-team
(7) http://blogs.channel4.com/paul-mason-blog/happy-breed-heck-british-values/987
(8) http://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=israel
(9) http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/author/lindsey-hilsum
(10) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cathy-newman-kevine-walcott-anti-semitic_uk_57ee249de4b0397f73b92a93; the subsequent revision of this status by Newman herself is here: https://x.com/cathynewman/status/979801268842573824?lang=en
(11) http://blogs.channel4.com/paul-mason-blog/gaza-conflict-israeli-soldiers-question/1364
(12) http://blogs.channel4.com/matt-frei-on-america/lose-lose-for-obama-and-palestinians-too/196; http://news.bbc.com/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8747317.stm
(13) http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/act-war-israel/4826; http://www.channel4.com/news/israeli-soldiers-ordered-to-cleanse-gaza
(14) https://www.channel4.com/news/by/lindsey-hilsum/blogs/palestinians-israelis-eye-eye-despair; http://blogs.channel4.com/lindsey-hilsum-on-international-affairs/netanyahu-scupper-deal-iran/4953
(15) http://blogs.channel4.com/jonathan-rugman-on-foreign-affairs/stay-french-jewish-families-facing-difficult-choices-charlie-hebdo/
(16) http://news.bbc.com/1/hi/world/middle_east/1447541.stm
(17) http://www.channel4.com/news/gaza-strip-latin-america-israel-diplomatic-brazil-argentina
(18) http://blogs.channel4.com/matt-frei-on-america/rudolf-hoess-plagued-commander-auschwitz/4247; http://news.bbc.com/1/hi/world/europe/648010.stm
(19) http://www.channel4.com/news/sustained-by-faith-the-only-jew-left-in-afghanistan
(20) http://blogs.channel4.com/gary-gibbon-on-politics/david-cameron-uk-police-step-patrols-jewish-areas/29979
(21) http://blogs.channel4.com/keme-nzerem-on-sport/boycott-on-cards-as-putin-visits-sochi-paralympics
(22) On this please see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/is-jeremy-corbyn-jewish
(23) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/cathy-newman-defends-biased-interview-with-jeremy-corbyn-and-claims-labour-leadership-hopeful-was-10460155.html
(24) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/channel-4-newsreader-cathy-newman-says-public-humiliation-is-the-answer-for-sexist-remarks-8721200.html
(25) http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/24/did-channel-4%E2%80%B2s-jon-snow-engage-in-jon-donnison-style-fauxtography/; http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/136708/the-west-obsessed-primeval%E2%80%99-israel-palestinian-conflict-says-jon-snow
(26) http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/channel-4-stands-challenging-interview-jewish-journalist/
(27) http://www.vanunu.com/nukes/20050804bbc.html
(28) http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=167&x_context=4
(29) http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/board-criticise-the-suns-editor-over-unhelpful-hijab-article/
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