Sky News has been accused of “serious editorial failure” after broadcasting a long interview with firebrand podcaster Tucker Carlson in which he voiced the theory that Israel controls the US just as a “master” oversees a “slave”.
The podcaster said: “There are a lot of reasons why Israel has been able to control the United States for decades.”
Arguing that this period was now coming to an end, he added: “I hope that we can have a normal relationship with Israel… not a master-slave relationship with Israel.”
Hakim did not address that particular framing of the US-Israel relationship but she had appeared to query the idea that Netanyahu was “in charge” earlier in the exchange.
However, a number of further incendiary, unevidenced comments about Israel and related topics by Carlson went unchallenged.
At one point Carlson claimed that Syria’s president Abu Mohammed al-Jolani was “installed.. because Assad [the previous leader] was unacceptable to Israel”.
Elsewhere, he claimed “Israel stole southern Lebanon”, with no mention of the missile attacks launched against Israel from the area by Hezbollah.
Neither claim was contested by Hakim.
Questioned about his increasingly vocal criticism of the UK, he stated: “I don't think you have a democracy… George Galloway would be prime minister if you had a democracy… I just love George Galloway…. he’s living in exile, he can’t even go back to the UK.”
Hakim retorted that the UK is a democracy, but did not point out that the anti-Israel politician was a controversial figure who was not in fact in exile.
During the course of the conversation, which took place at Carlson’s studio in rural Maine, the pair also discussed Donald Trump and the future of the MAGA movement, the war in Iran, and the podcaster’s views on Netanyahu, Israel and the war in Gaza – which he unequivocally insisted was a genocide.
Carlson referred to Netanyahu as “a criminal,” and said: “I don't feel sympathy for him after all the innocents he's murdered”.
However he said: "I do feel sympathy for Israel, just because there are a lot of nice people in Israel, and they don't deserve this,” adding that he believes the country is facing an “actually threatening” moment and he does “feel bad” about that.
David Toube, General Counsel at the Jewish Leadership Council said “There is nothing wrong with interviewing controversial figures. But if a broadcaster chooses to give someone a platform to baseless conspiratorial claims, it has a responsibility to subject those extraordinary statements to proper scrutiny.
“The comments made in the interview are not ordinary criticisms of Israeli policy. They echo longstanding conspiracy theories about hidden Jewish control over countries and democratic institutions. Sky cannot simply broadcast allegations of this gravity without demanding evidence for them.
"Disappointingly, it never did. That was a serious editorial failure.”
Sky was contacted for comment.
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