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Home / Entertainment

PewDiePie slams the mainstream media while apologising for anti-Semitic comments

NZ Herald
17 Feb, 2017 01:00 AM2 mins to read

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Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie responds to his critics after he was slammed for making anti-Semitic jokes. Photo/YouTube
Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie responds to his critics after he was slammed for making anti-Semitic jokes. Photo/YouTube

Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie responds to his critics after he was slammed for making anti-Semitic jokes. Photo/YouTube

Popular YouTube personality Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, has released an 11-minute long video explaining his recent actions.

The star got into hot water earlier this week following videos that contain anti-Semitic jokes. An investigation by the Wall Street Journal found that he had published nine such jokes in the past eight months, the most recent one in January seeing him pay two Indian men to hold up a sign reading ''Death to all Jews''.

The incident saw him dropped from a deal with Disney and punished by YouTube, and now Kjellberg has addressed the controversy in a new video.

READ MORE:
• World's biggest YouTube star dropped by Disney for anti-Semitic jokes

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Titled My Response, the 11-minute long video sees Kjellberg apologise for his comments while still blaming the media for how they covered the story.

"I'm sorry for the words that I used, as I know that they offended people," Kjellberg says. "And I admit that the joke went too far."

However, the apology does not come until four minutes into the video, which is mostly made of him bagging the media in a Trump-like way.

"I think most internet personalities will agree with me that the media generally doesn't like us very much," Kjellberg says near the start of the video. "Old school media does not like internet personalities because they are scared of us."

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He goes on to pick apart the Wall Street Journal's argument, comparing it to British tabloid The Sun and slamming the newspaper for not calling his comments "jokes".

While many of his fans have leapt to his defence, citing him as a satirist and that the media is over-hyping the comments, several commentators say that this attitude is what leads to racist behaviour becoming socially acceptable.

"The alt-right doesn't dress too dissimilarly from hipsters working in PR, and baby-faced Kjellberg quips about Jews in the style of your little brother making fart jokes," wrote Kristy Major of The Independent.

"It makes discrimination against religious minorities appear socially acceptable, culturally passable, normal."

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Neither YouTube nor Disney have released any comment on re-starting a relationship with the star.

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