An Alabama Robocall Invokes Ugly Tropes
Alabama’s Senate race received an ugly new wrinkle on Tuesday night, thanks to an apparent series of robocalls seem to be designed to fan resentments—of the press, of Northerners, and perhaps of Jewish reporters.
Local news station WKRG reported that one of its viewers received a robocall from a man impersonating a Washington Post reporter. In it, the man offers to pay women thousands of dollars if they’ll make false accusations against Roy Moore, the state’s former chief justice and the Republican candidate to replace Jeff Sessions in the Senate.
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Impersonating a journalist to smear the entire profession is a nasty enough maneuver on its own. But the Alabama robocall also seems to draw upon the dark motifs of antisemitism to accomplish its goal. The fake Bernstein’s nasally, high-pitched voice and forced New York accent evoke antisemitic caricatures and stereotypes. (The real Bernstein, for the record, sounds nothing like this.)
There’s a long, ugly history of intertwining anti-Semitism and attacks on media outlets. Historian Victoria Saker Woeste, writing in The Washington Post, described the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a virulent anti-Jewish tract first published in tsarist Russia, as the first modern instance of “fake news.” The pamphlet claimed a cabal of Jewish leaders had taken control of the media as part of a plot for world dominion.
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Yet more possible anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head, met with silence.
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