This week on We Used To Be Journos, our “yes” went to freelance writers and independent media outlets who did what corporate media and public broadcasters failed to do: adequately critique the claims made by Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, in her latest report.
The 40-page report released last Friday (30 October) was an update of the envoy’s priorities in tackling antisemitism, with a focus on identifying what drives and facilitates antisemitism.
Segal's report listed Islamic extremism, the far right, the far left and… a “fourth form” which she labelled “modern, progressive antisemitism”. This is apparently the “most pervasive form facing Australia today” and arts institutions, NGOs, human rights organisations and universities are riddled with it:
“It takes the hostility of Islamic extremism and far-left antisemitism, together with traditional antisemitic tropes, and gives it a respectable face through the language of social justice and human rights.”
The biggest mainstream news organisations in Australia all took the same approach and angle: uncritically reproducing quotes from Segal and her demands, with no evidence for her claims or voices contrary to her. This was despite the report having little to no quantitative or qualitative evidence. The report did not even have a methodology section! (Although Segal did manage to say twice that it was "fashionable" to be a so-called progressive antisemite.)
This is where our “yes” comes in: independent media’s analysis and breakdowns of the report, which seek to interrogate its claims, the assumptions it relies on, and to raise the alarm about the massive overreach the unelected Envoy wants into our institutions.
