With more than 750,000 readers and almost the same number of Twitter followers, TheJournal.ie is one of Ireland’s leading news organizations.
The online publication has taken a notably hostile editorial stance toward Israel over the years — so much so that it has caught the attention of HonestReporting on a handful of occasions.
In 2019, for example, we questioned why the outlet had published the first-person account of a Breaking the Silence activist who was accused of fabricating testimony that he had beaten a Palestinian man while serving as a soldier in the Israeli army. This after a number of IDF soldiers and commanders had publicly disputed his account.
And it appears that TheJournal.ie’s anti-Israel slant is reflected by its readers, who leave hundreds of comments on Israel-related stories, including many that cross the line into outright antisemitism.
Hosted by the website on pieces going back several years are numerous comments from readers that conspiratorially suggest it was a Jew who perpetrated terror attacks carried out by Palestinians; make light of the Holocaust, and compare the Jewish state to Nazi Germany.
Several replies were posted to stories that suggest the Israeli government is treating Palestinians in a “similar way” as Jews during Nazi Germany, a clear breach of the internationally recognized IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
Another comment on a piece about a terror attack on innocent Israeli civilians disputed the labeling of Palestinian terrorists as “militants,” justifying the atrocity on the grounds that Palestinian assailants are “resistance fighters” because Israel has “no right to be in the West Bank.”
While most news websites have content moderators that remove comments that are obscene, grossly offensive or illegal, it is unclear if TheJournal.ie filters reader comments on any of its stories.
Therefore, HonestReporting reached out to its editor Sinead O’Carroll to ask what the publication’s content moderation policy is and ask if they would remove the dozens of antisemitic comments on its website.
“A disturbingly large number of the user comments include racist language, including people blaming “the Jews” for incidents arising in Israel, comments that liken Israel to Nazi Germany and individuals making jokes about the Holocaust,” we wrote to Ms. O’Carroll.
Furthermore, we asked what TheJournal.ie’s “policy is toward vetting user comments and removing hateful content.”
Five days later and we have still not received a response.
We invite our readers to email TheJournal.ie at [email protected] to ask why the publication is happy to host such comments on its website.
Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region.
Or get updates on Telegram.
Holocaust Puns, Nazi Jokes and Lots of Blaming ‘The Jews’: Welcome to TheJournal.ie Reader Comments
Reading time: 4 minutes
With more than 750,000 readers and almost the same number of Twitter followers, TheJournal.ie is one of Ireland’s leading news organizations.
The online publication has taken a notably hostile editorial stance toward Israel over the years — so much so that it has caught the attention of HonestReporting on a handful of occasions.
In 2019, for example, we questioned why the outlet had published the first-person account of a Breaking the Silence activist who was accused of fabricating testimony that he had beaten a Palestinian man while serving as a soldier in the Israeli army. This after a number of IDF soldiers and commanders had publicly disputed his account.
And it appears that TheJournal.ie’s anti-Israel slant is reflected by its readers, who leave hundreds of comments on Israel-related stories, including many that cross the line into outright antisemitism.
Hosted by the website on pieces going back several years are numerous comments from readers that conspiratorially suggest it was a Jew who perpetrated terror attacks carried out by Palestinians; make light of the Holocaust, and compare the Jewish state to Nazi Germany.
Several replies were posted to stories that suggest the Israeli government is treating Palestinians in a “similar way” as Jews during Nazi Germany, a clear breach of the internationally recognized IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
Another comment on a piece about a terror attack on innocent Israeli civilians disputed the labeling of Palestinian terrorists as “militants,” justifying the atrocity on the grounds that Palestinian assailants are “resistance fighters” because Israel has “no right to be in the West Bank.”
While most news websites have content moderators that remove comments that are obscene, grossly offensive or illegal, it is unclear if TheJournal.ie filters reader comments on any of its stories.
Therefore, HonestReporting reached out to its editor Sinead O’Carroll to ask what the publication’s content moderation policy is and ask if they would remove the dozens of antisemitic comments on its website.
“A disturbingly large number of the user comments include racist language, including people blaming “the Jews” for incidents arising in Israel, comments that liken Israel to Nazi Germany and individuals making jokes about the Holocaust,” we wrote to Ms. O’Carroll.
Furthermore, we asked what TheJournal.ie’s “policy is toward vetting user comments and removing hateful content.”
Five days later and we have still not received a response.
We invite our readers to email TheJournal.ie at [email protected] to ask why the publication is happy to host such comments on its website.
Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region.
Or get updates on Telegram.
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