Age editor speaks at JCCV plenum
Editor-in-Chief of Melbourne newspaper The Age Andrew Holden was the keynote speaker at the February Plenum of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV).
Andrew Holden, Jennifer Huppert and Bram Presser
He spoke to over 100 community leaders, JCCV affiliate delegates and interested community members at Melbourne’s Beth Weizmann Community Centre.
The Jewish community has serious concerns about media bias and slanted reporting of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, and Jennifer Huppert, JCCV President, thanked Mr Holden for being brave enough to attend and answer questions from the community.
Mr Holden met with community leaders from JCCV, Zionism Victoria, Zionist Federation of Australia, AIJAC and the Australian Union of Jewish Students prior to the Plenum, and there was a vigorous discussion regarding cases of perceived distorted reporting and serious omissions of context.
At the Plenum, Mr Holden had difficulty on occasion responding to questioners who raised examples of biased reporting and opinion pieces with clear ideological slants, such as one that blamed Israel for the Paris terrorist attacks.
A couple of very well made points presented by Rabbi James Kennard were warmly welcomed by the audience.
Ms Huppert stated, “This was an excellent opportunity for the community to make its views known to The Age, and provided Mr Holden with the opportunity to defend the newspaper’s position. As Mr Holden said, I am not sure he sold any more newspapers tonight, but we thank him for the opportunity to have the discussion. Maybe The Age will take an extra few seconds to think through their decisions when next approving an opinion piece or choosing an article on Israel.”
What a disappointment The Age has turned out to be in the last fifteen years in particular. Used to be a quality newspaper. How pathetic that it would allow these particular journalists to write about the Israel/Palestinian issue and how biassed and lacking in professionalism Ruth Pollard has been over the past seven years or so with her sub-standard, slanted reporting from the Middle East.
It’s a paper not worth reading on any score now.
I’m so pleased that we could at least express our anger and perspective as Jews. Good on you for being there for that Michael Burd.
Mr Holden did not come over as particularly intelligent in fact att one stage after a question he looked blank and said oh I,be lost my train of thought .If it were my company I would be embarrassed to have him as my representative that’s for sure .
Most questions he had no answers and almost agreed about his newspapers bias and obsession with Israel .
I asked Holden about how did he expect us to believe his newspapers balance in reporting the Israel / Palestinian / Arab conflict when The Age “Palestinian ” foreign desk editor was also
Palestinian activist who is invited to speak at universities and other venues advocating for his fellow
Palestinians along with a Muslim journalist who was a ex board member of the Islamic
Council Victoria and a Muslim advocate Both these journalists wrote about issues relating to Israel and Islam .
Was it any wonder The Age reporting on these issues was obsessively pro Palestinian and obsessively pro Islam .
Holden ended up saying that we should be pleased. that he is closing down the Middle East bureau and The Age would be concentrating on local issues .
We should be happy after so much damage has been done to poison the minds of their
Readers against Israeli Jews over so many years !
Holden seemed pretty obsessed with the gay and LGBT community I wanted to ask him how did he think
his Gay and LBGT friends would get along in his beloved Gaza but could not get a second bite of the cherry .
However I did loose it when Holden started to talk about how his previous Muslim
Community were being descriminated against .
I stood up and reminded him that he needed to go through security tonight at Beth Weizman did he know why and was it appropriate to talk about Muslims at this meeting .
What a bozo . Although I do give him credit for facing up to what he knew would be a tough audience .
Thank you JCCV for the opurtunity to let him know first hand how angry many Jews were .