Columnist in ‘anti-semitic’ slur on BBC’S Winkleman gets sack from newspaper
A COLUMNIST has been sacked after writing “anti-semitic” comments in a column that suggested that Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz are among the best-paid BBC women because they are Jewish.
The column, by Kevin Myers, in the Irish edition of yesterday’s Sunday Times was titled “Sorry, ladies – equal pay has to be earned”.
The newspaper’s editor, Martin Ivens, said the comments were “unacceptable” and it was an “error of judgment” that they were printed. A spokesman later confirmed that Mr Myers had been sacked as a columnist for the Irish title.
In his column, which has now been removed from The Sunday Times website and digital edition, Mr Myers wrote: “I note that two of the best-paid women presenters in the BBC – Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz, with whose, no doubt, sterling work I am tragically unacquainted – are Jewish. Good for them.
“Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity.”
Mr Myers also argued that male presenters may earn more because they “work harder, get sick less frequently and seldom get pregnant”.
Winkleman, who presents Strictly Come Dancing, earns between £450,000 and £499,999, making her the eighth overall highest paid. She is the best-paid female presenter, and the only woman to appear in the list of the corporation’s top ten earners.
Feltz, a veteran broadcaster who presents radio shows on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio London, earns between £350,000 and £399, 999 is the joint fourteenth highest earner overall.
Gideon Falter, chairman of Campaign Against Anti-semitism, has complained to Ipso, the press regulator, about the article. “This was an utterly vile column, which deployed well-worn anti-semitic tropes about Jews,” he said.
A spokesman for The Sunday Times confirmed that Mr Myers will not write again for the Irish edition and that a printed apology will appear in next week’s newspaper.
“The Sunday Times editor Martin Ivens has also apologised personally to Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz for these unacceptable comments both to Jewish people and to women in the workplace,” the spokesman said. Mr Ivens said that the comments “should not have been published”, adding: “We sincerely apologise for the remarks and the error of judgment that led to publication.” Frank Fitzgibbon, editor of The Sunday Times in Ireland, also issued a statement apologising “unreservedly” for the article, saying he takes “full responsibility” for its publication.
“It contained views that have caused considerable distress and upset to a number of people,” he said. “As the editor of the Ireland edition, I take full responsibility for this error of judgment. This newspaper abhors antisemitism and did not intend to cause offence to Jewish people.” Mr Myers has previously been criticised for writing articles in The Belfast Telegraph and The Irish Times claiming that “there was no Holocaust”. He also questioned the death toll of six million Jews, saying that activists had brought this number into “popular perception”.
Another of his articles, titled “Africa is giving nothing to anyone – apart from Aids”, was printed in The Irish Independent.