Anyone who doubts the media's ability to shape wider public opinion should remember its role in a strange electoral phenomenon long noted by psephologists. Many working-class voters prefer a Conservative government, even when it should be clear that their interests will be harmed as a result.
There is, after all, a reason why corporations are so ready to plough their money into propping up loss-making newspapers and it isn't out of concern for the wider social good. It is about maintaining a climate of opinion in which their right to make money is unimpeded.
Other Jewish voicesIn contrast to the manufactured media consensus on Corbyn, an interview this month with John Bercow, the former Speaker of the House of Commons, was a reminder that there are contrary voices inside the Jewish community. After 22 years serving in parliament alongside Corbyn, Bercow observed of the Labour leader: "I have never detected so much as a whiff of antisemitism from him." Nor, he added, from the Labour Party.
There are good reasons why more Jews may be reluctant to speak up on Corbyn's behalf, however.
Last April, Jewish actress Miriam Margolyes found herself accused of antisemitism after she argued that the antisemitism complaints against Labour were being exaggerated to stop Corbyn from becoming prime minister. In a telling sign of how the climate against Corbyn is being manufactured by the media, a letter from prominent Jews and public figures in support of Corbyn, including Mark Ruffalo, Steve Coogan and Mike Leigh, could find a home only in the New Musical Express.
Anti-racism campaignerCorbyn has been one of the most outspoken and visible anti-racism campaigners in parliament for decades. In fact, it is his long-standing vocal support for oppressed ethnic and national minorities that lies at the root of the current antisemitism "crisis" in his own party.
Corbyn has been a leading champion of the Palestinian cause, demanding that Israel end more than half a century of belligerent occupation that has oppressed Palestinians and is in clear breach of international law.
His activism long ago made him unpopular among many fellow MPs in his party, Jews and non-Jews alike, who are members of the Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) lobby. They have thrown their support fully behind Israel.
LFI is one of the many organisations that connects the Labour party to Israel. All are anachronistic remnants of a time when the British left treated Israel as nothing other than a sanctuary for Jews fleeing a long history of persecution in Europe.
But these Labour lobby groups reflected too a lingering European racism only too willing to overlook the legacy of Israel's creation the mass suffering of Palestinians ruled over by an unaccountable, brutal Israeli army.
It was Palestinians, not Europeans, who were made to atone for Europe's racism towards the Jewish people. Corbyn acknowledges that historical fact. Most of his parliamentary colleagues refuse to do so. Some may even unconsciously resent him for highlighting their own hypocrisy and unthinking racism towards Palestinians.
Unpopular MilibandIt is important to remember that antipathy towards the Labour Party from many in the British Jewish community is nothing new and long predates Corbyn's leadership. Perhaps most revealing on this score was the dismal polling among Jews of Corbyn's predecessor, Ed Miliband, who is himself Jewish.
A Jewish Chronicle survey in early 2015 found that only 22 per cent of Jews intended to vote for Labour under Miliband's leadership, compared to 69 per cent who backed the Conservative party.
Also, five times more British Jews thought Tory leader David Cameron was good for their community than Miliband. The reasoning of many was indicated by their answer to a further question: 73 per cent said the parties' attitude towards Israel and the Middle East would be "very" or "quite" important in influencing how they voted.
A poll a few weeks earlier had noted that the overwhelming majority of Britons thought it irrelevant that Miliband was Jewish in deciding how they would vote. Paradoxically, it was British Jews who largely saw Miliband negatively in relation to his Jewishness.
'No passion' for IsraelMiliband was not accused of antisemitism that might have sounded a little too improbable but he was found guilty by a significant number in the Jewish community of failing to be a strong advocate for Israel. For example, he antagonised many with his criticisms of Israel when it launched an attack on a blockaded Gaza in 2014 that killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, including some 550 children.
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