ABC’s Sophie McNeill accused of anti-Israel bias in ad by Labor MP

Michael Danby’s accusation against Middle East correspondent in Australian Jewish News prompts call for Shorten to intervene

Federal Labor MP Michael Danby has paid for an advertisement in the Australian Jewish News that accuses ABC Middle East correspondent Sophie McNeill of being biased in her reporting of Jews and Palestinians.

The ABC’s director of news, Gaven Morris, is so appalled by the prominent ad in the community paper he has written to the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, calling on him to curb the Victorian MP’s attack.

The advertisement, which Danby paid for in part with electoral funds, features a photograph of McNeill wearing dark glasses flanked by a Palestinian family on her left and a Jewish family on her right.

Danby claims McNeill provided “extensive” coverage of the eviction of the Palestinian Shamasneh family and “minimal” reportage of the stabbing of the Salomon family.

Read the article by Amanda Meade in The Guardian.