TalkTV became the latest media outlet to platform shocking Islamaphobic views just days after political blog Guido was forced to remove an anti-Muslim tweet after it sparked a public backlash.
Trevor Kavanagh joined Jeremy Kyle and Rosie Wright to discuss Israel remarks made by two Labour Party candidates which came to light this week.
Audio emerged on Tuesday that appeared to show former Labour MP Graham Jones use the words “f Israel” at the same meeting that led to the withdrawal of support for Rochdale’s Azhar Ali, while also allegedly suggesting that British people who volunteer to fight with the Israeli Defence Forces should be “locked up”.
The Hyndburn candidate is understood to have been administratively suspended from the party, pending an investigation, following the report from Guido.
But the political blog found itself in a spot of bother of its own after it posted on X (formerly Twitter) a tweet read:
“The thing that nobody says yet we all know, is that the Labour Party have chosen to seek unsophisticated Muslim community support for numerical reasons at the expense of sophisticated Jewish support.”
Comments made by Kavanagh on TalkTV have also provoked controversy after he said:
“By the very definition of being a Muslim you are going to be anti-Jewish.”
Responding to the comments, a spokesperson for the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) told The London Economic:
“The way that Muslims are treated across many sections of our mainstream media is appalling as we have been documenting for many years.
“It’s one thing to bring on controversial individuals with a history of anti-Muslim remarks on a topic related to Muslims without introducing them as such. It’s another to not challenge the most blatant examples of Islamophobia.
“Talk TV need to apologise on-air for not challenging him, put processes to stop it happening again and share with their viewers the reality (which is the opposite).
“This type of prejudice is prevalent across both broadcast and print media, and the regulators have been – thus far – failing to act. We will be working with them to change this.”
TalkTV has apologised for the handling of the comments, saying:
“TalkTV broadcasts a wide range of opinions. The conversation broadcast yesterday morning should have been handled differently and this comment should have been challenged on air.
“We apologise to those who have been offended by the remark.”
Related: Labour ‘would have acted sooner’ had it known about Ali’s comments, says Reeves
