I have been subscribed to Pewdiepie since I was 11 years old and he posted videos of himself playing Happy Wheels, and I still watch his content daily. I was genuinely shocked when he was accused of anti-semitism by people I had never seen call out anti-semitism before. I’m Jewish, I watch this man all the time, and I never got offended by what he did. The accusation of anti-semitism was lost on me until I read several articles on the topic, and then I figured his act of Nazism turned out not to be one at all. I am shocked at the fact these left-wing, pro-social-justice journalists called out a Youtuber, but not the anti-semites in America’s congress and England’s parliament. The media has an anti-semitism reporting problem, and it is time they fix it.

This Pewdiepie story is being milked so hard, to this day. All Kjellberg did was shoutout a creator whose video he liked on anime, not realizing the creator he shouted out made horrific anti-semitic and racist content, then apologized for it in a better way than most Youtubers do. It was a mistake for sure, especially for someone whose mass following grows by the second, but the issue was resolved. In December 2018, there were many worse incidents surrounding anti-semitism going on, but Vox, The Verge, and even The Washington Post were failing to report on them. According The Times of Israel in December 2018 alone the windows of a Synagogue in Switzerland were smashed, 90% of European Jews said they feel a rise in anti-semitism, and it came out that 2018 was the deadliest year for anti-semitic violence of the millenia. All these things were ignored to call out a Youtuber who in his own words did an “oopsie,” a bad one for sure, but made a mistake. It frustrates me, as Jew that these horrific things don’t make their way into mainstream media and people fail to realize anti-semitism is alive and well in the western world; it didn’t just end with the fall of Nazi Germany. It frustrates me as a consumer of the news they are more focused on tearing up a Youtuber’s reputation than actually talking about anti-semitism to discuss the social justice they love so much.

In the last few months some hot topics have been the anti-semites in America’s congress and the UK’s Labour Party. In America, we have congresswoman Ilhan Omar who promoted the conspiracy that Jews are all rich and run the world, and refused to apologize for it. Maybe, she could take a lesson from Felix Kjellberg on how to make a proper apology video. Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the labour party has said a slew of anti-semitic things including: “I am now more careful with how I might use the term Zionist because a once self-identifying political term bas been increasingly hijacked by anti-semites as code for Jews,” which even The Guardian called ironic. Though, the Corbyn story has been reported on as world news and by English and Jewish news sources alike, the Omar story in the US has not. I bring Corbyn up because he and Omar are similar and their anti-semitism is under-reported in the states. Many articles, of course by gentiles, came out in support of Ilhan Omar. Sure, promoting an age old conspiracy is not the worst act of anti-semitism in the US this year, but it says something about who we elect to congress. The people of Minnesota elected a known anti-semite and no one seemed to care except the Jews. The regular media did not care at all and what were they doing when she was elected? Bloomberg was busy updating a hit piece about Pewdiepie and his Youtube reign a week after the election, NBC News was publishing articles about the printer-hack in late November, and so was the New York Post. Bloomberg did not acknowledge Ilhan Omar’s rocky past in that same seven day span, but praised her for her identity. NBC News did the same thing. However, The New York Post did actually mention her anti-semitism, but it came with its conservative bias. What kind of world do we live in where is takes a conservative news source to call out hating on Jews while all the liberal ones have a fit at the Youtuber the conservative source was also having a fit at? It doesn’t make sense. It is as if the mainstream media wants to distract from the left-wing anti-semitism and has chosen Pewdiepie to be the poster child for right-wing anti-semitism, when it should really be the Neo-Nazis in power in Eastern Europe, or Steve King.

I think there is hope for the media, unlike some of my like-minded counterparts. I read The New York Times everyday, glance at my local paper, and read whatever Apple News recommends to me. I do not think the news is dying, but it could do a better job. Mainstream media should focus on real worldwide problems, which means focusing on the roots of anti-semitism in this case. They should investigate what caused this spike instead of lazily blaming on a Youtuber or all of hatred and anti-semitism on Donald Trump. I shouldn’t feel like the only person in the world investigating the rise of new anti-semitism and Nazism in my history and english papers. Maybe, the media should stop focusing so much on tearing people down and work on being informative in this age were news and opinion are a blurred line. In conclusion, stop blaming a Youtuber for the hate problems of the world, and start examining the people on your own side.