Posted on 04/29/23
| News Source: i24
Caricature of departing BBC boss, who is of Jewish heritage, said to traffic in age-old anti-Jewish stereotypes; cartoon eventually removed from website
British daily The Guardian on Saturday apologized for a caricature of an outgoing BBC boss that was accused of trafficking in anti-Semitic stereotypes.
Richard Sharp announced his resignation as BBC chairman on Friday after his involvement in a loan for then British prime minister Boris Johnson raised questions about the broadcaster's impartiality.
Martin Rowson’s drawing featured a grinning caricature of Sharp, who is Jewish, with an enlarged hooked nose; Sharp is seen carrying a Goldman Sachs office box, stuffed with gold and big-nosed squids.
Banking and investment giant Goldman Sachs is Sharp's former employer. The multinational figures prominently in anti-Semitically tinged rhetoric on world domination by financial capital. Notably, Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi described it as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”
Following widespread outrage, The Guardian issued an apology and removed Rowson's drawing from its website as it "did not meet our editorial standards." Rowson too issued an apology, saying he "screwed up pretty badly."
Britain's left-wing broadsheet is embroiled in the nation's latest anti-Semitism scandal days after its sister newspaper published a letter by far-left Labour parliamentarian Dianne Abbott claiming that Jews have not experienced racism, but mere "prejudice."