Sharri Markson on facing the hate

Outspoken advocate Sharri Markson says rabbis have told her that she has been put in the right place at the right time to do the job that she’s doing. “Being a fighter for what’s right is intrinsic to my personality,” she tells The Jewish Independent. “Most jobs don’t lend themselves to commentary and opinion. Mine does. And rabbis give me blessings to keep doing what I’m doing.”

Markson is the host of the eponymous prime-time opinion show Sharri, which features on Sky News at 8pm four nights a week. She first landed a weekly spot on the network in 2018 and has broken several agenda-setting stories, including an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 which became the  a book, What Really Happened in Wuhan.

Markson hosted a Sky News documentary of the same name which was viewed 13 million times and for which she interviewed Donald Trump – his first interview as US President with Australian broadcast media.

But it’s her unremitting focus on antisemitism that now dominates her agenda and output, with clips of her programs viewed globally, including in the US, Israel, South Africa and Canada.

Markson is both loved and divisive. Large sections of the Jewish community support her partisan lens, but there are others - Jewish and non-Jewish – who are critical of her singular focus on antisemitism and unwillingness to engage with Israel's faults. 

Readily acknowledging that her television program is a combination of journalism and advocacy, Markson regards herself as “extremely fortunate to have an opinion program which gives me the platform and ability to speak out against antisemitism. This is an unprecedented crisis for our country. The entire Jewish community is feeling it, irrespective of individual political views or ideologies.