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The Guardian Changes “Jewish Lobby” Headline

An opinion piece by Alan Elsner appeared on The Guardian’s website in advance of the upcoming AIPAC conference: But a look at the article’s URL gives a clue as to the original headline: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/26/aipac-american-jewish-lobby-support-kerry-mideast-peace Indeed,…

Simon Plosker
February 27, 2014
12:00 am

Reading time: < 1 minutes

An opinion piece by Alan Elsner appeared on The Guardian’s website in advance of the upcoming AIPAC conference:

But a look at the article’s URL gives a clue as to the original headline:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/26/aipac-american-jewish-lobby-support-kerry-mideast-peace

Indeed, a bit of online digging and a look at some retweets on Twitter such as this below reveal that the original headline referenced “The American Jewish lobby“:

While The Guardian updated the headline a few hours later to its current version, it says much about that media outlet’s thinking that it would initially refer to the “American Jewish lobby,” a term that is more usually associated with anti-Semitic tropes.

Perhaps not so surprising coming from The Guardian.

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Simon Plosker

With over two decades of experience in various non-governmental organizations in the UK and Israel, Simon Plosker returned to HonestReporting in October 2022 as Editorial Director having previously been part of the organization’s management team from 2005 to 2020. Prior to his first spell at HonestReporting, Simon worked in Israel for NGO Monitor, BICOM, and served for a short period in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. He was Managing Editor of the Geneva-based NGO United Nations Watch for two years before moving back to the frontline defending Israel from media bias. Simon has a BSoc.Sc in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics. He immigrated to Israel in 2001 from London.

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