LEWIS Fink’s sentiments (January 31) regarding Good Morning Britain’s Holocaust Memorial Day coverage, specifically in reference to its failure to mention Jews when listing victims of the Holocaust, echo my own.
During the coverage, the news anchor Ranvir Singh discussed the millions who were killed in the concentration camps, saying:“Six million people were killed in concentration camps during the Second World War, as well as millions of others because they were Polish, disabled, gay or belonged to another ethnic group.”
The omission prompted an angry backlash from viewers and Jewish organisations. Campaign Against Antisemitism issued this statement: “This truly beggars belief. This dire reporting is not only factually incorrect, but erases Jews from a genocide in which six million Jewish men, women and children were slaughtered specifically because they were Jews.
“How is it possible, therefore, that on Holocaust Memorial Day of all days, @GMB manages to acknowledge several other groups but not Jews?”
How indeed.
The following morning, a news anchor from GMB addressed viewers and apologised for failing to mention that those six million were predominantly Jewish, claiming that this was a mistake.
This doesn’t make sense. To refer to the six million Jews who were murdered in concentration camps as ‘people’ and then add “as well as millions of others” and go on to list other victims of the Holocaust, is not a mistake.
This would only make sense if the original prepared script said six million Jews were killed as well as the Polish, gays, etc.and the word ‘Jews’ was taken out later.
GMB’s half-baked apology is meaningless and has left many questions unanswered: did the original prepared script include reference to ‘Jews’?
If not, why not and was this an editorial decision? If yes, at what point was a decision made to replace ‘Jews’ with ‘people’?
And was this discussed and sanctioned by the editorial team? Why wasn’t this obvious omission immediately corrected on air? What action, if any, has its management taken to investigate this incident?
GMB’s abject failure to include Jews in its HMD coverage has shocked the Jewish community and compounded the pain of Jewish Holocaust survivors.
If it is to regain the trust of the Jewish community, it must answer these questions. Without answers, this will leave an indelible stain on GMB’s reputation, not only with regard to accurate reporting and maintaining journalistic standards but fostering conditions conducive to erasing Jews from the Holocaust.
Hana Kovler,
Prestwich,
Manchester.
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