A so-called journalist for the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sydney Daily Telegraph was busted red-handed setting up a story.
Ofir Birenbaum, a prominent member of Sydney’s Jewish community was accompanied by senior Daily Telegraph journalist Danielle Gusmaroli and a photographer to the Cairo Takeaway, a popular Egyptian restaurant on Enmore Road in Newtown, on Tuesday, February 11.
In CCTV footage Birenbaum, wearing a white Star of David cap and video camera-equipped glasses, can be seen entering the venue and ordering a hibiscus tea.
The only difference this time to how all of Rupert Murdoch’s newsrooms and his employees operate got blown wide open as a Murdoch hack got busted red-handed. This is not a one-off incident, it’s a daily occurrence.
This is how Murdoch newsrooms operate all day every day. It is standard practice in a Murdoch newsroom. Nothing out of the ordinary here for a Murdoch newsroom, just another day ‘in the office’ on Sydney’s Holt St.
Birenbaum allegedly made a provocative comment.
As he reached the door, it is alleged he asked a staff member if his presence was upsetting them because he was Jewish.
The exchange then led to a verbal altercation between cafe staff, onlookers, Birenbaum and the newspaper’s crew, who soon made a hasty exit when they realised they’d been ‘busted’.
A woman filmed the Murdoch hack team and Birenbaum at one point stating: “You picked the wrong restaurant to f—— try this shit in.”
A leaked planning document reveals the stunt was part of a story about “what it’s like being Jewish in Sydney”, the Sydney Morning Herald and Crikey reported.
The Daily Telegraph also approached a Jewish organisation to partake in the story, but they declined.
The restaurant’s owner Hesham El Masry called the police but after a three-day investigation, it was decided no crime had been committed.
Cairo Takeaway has posted pro-Palestine messages on its social media accounts and its exterior features a mural of a fist in the Palestinian flag’s colours by prominent street artist Scottie Marsh.
“The [Daily] Telegraph never intended to provoke an incident at the Cairo Takeaway restaurant in Enmore, which was one of [the] multiple venues across Sydney we visited, nor to report that its staff are antisemitic.
“The Daily Telegraph acknowledges our approach could have been better handled.”
Despite the claims of Murdoch’s Daily Telegraph, this is not ‘out of the ordinary’ in a Murdoch newsroom at all. It is standard practice and all Murdoch newsrooms’ modus operandi every single day.
Whilst Murdoch tries to ‘play this down’ reality is this how Murdoch newsrooms and the journalists (if you’d call them that) operate within Murdoch newsrooms 24/7/365. The only difference this time is that they got busted.
Whether it’s Melbourne’s Herald Sun, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, Hobart’s The Mercury, The Australian or Sky News and all the other Murdoch-owned media, this is not a one-off incident, it is standard practice in a Murdoch-owned newsroom.
Rupert Murdoch is a good friend of Donald Trump.
This incident seems to have been a deliberate attempt to publicise alleged antisemitism against an establishment owned by a Muslim of Middle Eastern heritage. It reminds me of the 2 young nurses of Arabic heritage who are being banned from working in their profession in Australia because they made outrageous (and as I read it, unserious) claims that they would abuse or kill any Jewish patient. The account of the nurses’ incident sounded like this one. A person who claimed to be Israeli goaded the young nurses on an internet chat site until they stupidly made these unserious threats. Now their careers are ruined, they have no job.
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