UK Sunday Times fires columnist, apologizes after publishing his anti-Semitic column
The wave of Jew-hatred spreading throughout the world surfaced in the pages of yesterday's Sunday Times in the UK. The BBC reports:
A Sunday Times columnist "will not write again" for the newspaper after one of his articles was branded "anti-Semitic" and "disgraceful".
In the piece, Kevin Myers suggested BBC presenters Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz earned high salaries because they were Jewish.
Specifically:
The column, titled "Sorry, ladies – equal pay has to be earned", follows criticism of the BBC, after it was revealed two-thirds of its stars earning more than £150,000 are male.
Commenting that two of the best-paid presenters, Winkleman and Feltz, were Jewish, Mr Myers wrote: "Good for them.
"Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity."
That is quite a tangent: from women being underpaid to Jewish women being overpaid. It suggest a bit of an obsession.
Readers quickly responded:
Times readers – who must pay a subscription to access online content – commented on the original article to express their disgust, and called for both the writer and editor to resign.
"The proud anti-Semitism in this column is nothing short of disgraceful. Myers must go and so must the editor who approved this piece," Alan Simpson wrote.
There was an organized response:
It was taken down following anger on social media and a formal complaint from the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism to press regulator Ipso.
The campaign said the removal of the article and apology from editors within hours was "proof that the decision to include the column was irrefutably wrong".
The newspaper will publish a formal apology next Sunday.
Ms. Feltz responded on-air:
Vanessa Feltz has said she felt "extremely upset" by a Sunday Times column which suggested she and Claudia Winkleman earned high salaries because they were Jewish.
The BBC presenter described the piece by Kevin Myers as "so obviously racist it's surprisingly hurtful".
She also questioned how no-one at the paper appeared to spot the article.
Editor Martin Ivens said the piece, which was in the Irish edition and online, should not have been published.
Speaking on BBC Radio London where she presents the breakfast show, Feltz said: "I would have thought after all these years I'd be immune or used to it, but that's not at all how I felt. I felt extremely upset.
The educated classes in Britain, including journalists, are being schooled anew in the tropes of Jew-hatred, with "illegitimate occupiers of Palestine" replacing "Christ-killers" in the demonology. This firing and apology are wonderful, but they don't solve the problem, which is that the world's oldest hate will not die and is resurgent on the backs of a human tide fleeing Islamic countries but wanting to impose Islam on their hosts.