The bizarre alliance between the anti-Zionist Greens and Hackney’s ultra-Orthodox Jews

The Telegraph tells the story of a Hackney council motion to end the borough's twinning with Haifa almost entirely through one Conservative councillor's eyes. In the supplied text no Green councillor is quoted and the motion's own reasons are never given. The article also carries the councillor's complaint about the council's priorities into its own narration. The failings are minor.

The model scored this article automatically, as part of a NewsCord staff review of this reporter's recent articles. Staff did not tell it where to look.

1. States one side's claim as fact

   Minor

   “It was not a vote on Hackney’s controversial low-traffic neighbourhood restrictions or a debate on school budgets.”

   Why this matters

   The sentence moves Steinberger's attributed view, that the motion reveals the wrong priorities, into the reporter's own narration. It sets the Haifa motion against traffic and school budgets.

   The impression it gives

   A reader takes it as the outlet's own finding that the new council neglected local business for a foreign cause.

   The context

   In S7 this is Steinberger's opinion, marked with "he says". The article gives no evidence about what else was on the council's agenda that night.

   How we know

   • Elsewhere in the article“he says, seemed to reveal the priorities of the new establishment”

2. One side gets the space

   Minor

   “the Greens put forward a motion to sever the borough’s 60-year relationship”

   Why this matters

   The Greens appear only as the actors of the motion. No Green councillor is quoted, and the motion's own words and stated reasons are never given.

   The impression it gives

   A reader hears only the Conservative councillor's mocking account of a motion whose movers never get to explain it.

   The context

   Every quoted word in the supplied text comes from Steinberger. The Greens, who hold 42 of 67 seats, are given no voice on a motion they proposed.

   How we know

   • Elsewhere in the article“says Steinberger with a mischievous glint”
   • Elsewhere in the article“42 of the 67 councillors are now Green”