Thread by @jrschlosberg

Ware has now 'responded' to myself, @OborneTweets and others in the wake of @AJIunit's #LabourFiles

But in a 6K+ word article he again appears to sidestep the questions I've been trying to put to him and @BBCPanorama for 3+ years..

thearticle.com/rewriting-hist…

He repeats that an interview with @schneiderhome forms the basis of the ‘central allegation’ made against him. Yet, somewhat incredulously, again avoids any mention of the main thrust of that interview..

https://twitter.com/i/status/1575051007226269696

which is quite clearly concerned with the way in which his programme appeared to carefully select 2 phrases/10 words from an email by Seumas Milne that was querying Jewish Labour members being ‘more than occasionally’ the subject of disciplinary action over antisemitism...

Panorama ENTIRELY OMITTED any mention of this essential context in spite of the fact it was pressed in Labour’s pre-broadcast reply.

I asked Ware about this ahead of my Novara article more than two years ago and he declined to answer...

novaramedia.com/2020/07/22/bbc…

The fact that Milne was specifically raising concern about the party disciplining a number of Jewish members for antisemitism was clearly an awkward fit for the programme’s preferred narrative...

To omit any mention of it and ignore the party’s pre-broadcast reply emphasising that very point was indeed a remarkable lapse of basic journalistic standards…

For the BBC to then double down on that failure by repeatedly dismissing complaints – partly on what we now know to be the fictitious claim that the party was given a ‘full right of reply’ – is just an insult to its viewers and makes a mockery of its accountability structures…

Aside from this, Ware neglects to say anything of the other principle allegations and critiques made by myself, @OborneTweets and #LabourFiles producer @Richard75031541...

He doesn’t mention, for instance, the apparent stand out lie told by Ben Westerman in regard to his interrogation of two members of the party’s Riverside constituency...

https://twitter.com/i/status/1574075642668351489

Without mentioning that both these members were Jewish, Westerman told the programme he was asked by one of them if he was ‘from Israel’, when in fact Israel was not mentioned in the exchange...

Given the politically charged nature of the topic, you might have expected the BBC to want to fact check such allegations which wouldn’t have been too difficult. A journalist from @thecanary managed to do it shortly after the programme aired...

thecanary.co/investigations…

Rather than engage with these points, Ware bases his entire defence of Panorama on what he considers other evidence of ‘interference’ by the Corbyn leadership, which consists largely of hearsay and references to the deeply flawed EHRC investigation...bindmans.com/knowledge-hub/…

At one point he does have the good grace to acknowledge that Laura Murray did – on behalf of the leader’s office – make a genuine attempt to expedite and escalate antisemitism investigations, including with regard to Ken Livingstone...

Yet he doesn’t explain why Panorama made no mention of this, including in a sequence devoted to Livingstone. Instead, former head of disputes Sam Matthews was given an unchallenged platform to claim that the case made a mockery of the party's 'zero tolerance' to antisemitism...

Murray's stated concerns on behalf of Corbyn about the impending readmission of Livingstone into the party were in the public domain 2 months prior to Panorama’s airing…

buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/le…

Perhaps worst of all, Ware offers no defence as to why Panorama solely interviewed a small number of Jewish members with clear factional associations, and not one of the hundreds of Jewish members on record defending Corbyn over his handling of antisemitism in the party...

Ware also complains of what he calls ‘ad hominem’ and defamatory attacks made against him by me and others. In fact - despite his own disparaging remarks about me - I’ve repeatedly made clear that Ware “does not bear personal responsibility for Panorama’s reporting failures”...

And actually I have no doubt that Ware genuinely believed – as so many did and still do – that the Corbyn leadership's agenda was to ‘interfere’ in the complaints process in order to protect their friends and allies...

But rather than suing his critics or dismissing them as agenda-pushing ‘Corbynistas’, it would be extremely welcome if he actually just engaged with the evidence that I and others have sought to draw attention to...

For the avoidance of any doubt, I repeat my questions to him as follows:

1. Why did Panorama make no mention of Laura Murray’s attempts to expedite antisemitism investigations – including Ken Livingstone – on behalf of the Corbyn leadership?...

2. Why did Panorama make no mention of the fact that Milne’s email was entirely focused on the thorny issue of discipling Jewish members for antisemitism and ignored Labour’s pre-broadcast reply on this point?...

3. Why did the programme not seek to interview a single one of the hundreds of Jewish members on record as defending Corbyn’s handling of antisemitism in the party?

I’d be very happy to append any response from Ware to this thread without further comment.