Farage's US roasting is a reminder that not everyone is willing to look the other way as he tears the UK apart

For the cheerleaders of Nigel Farage, it was a chastening, emperor’s new clothes moment.

An humiliating, eviscerating reality check at the hands of Democrat congressman Jamie Raskin which reflected horrendously on the people, platform and the politicians indulging - let’s have it right - a far right extremist.

Yes, professional courtesy normally dictates that we in mainstream media don’t often reflect on our own industry. But Farage and his rhetoric has emboldened racists and threatened the safety and security of millions of innocent, law abiding people around the UK.

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Farage is a man who, when asked how far his deportation plans would go, cited Windrush. Now is not the time for kid gloves.

A growing, worried number of observers here remain justifiably concerned that broadcasters with a responsibility to be objective - particularly around sensitive, incendiary issues like migration - have taken a collective leave of their senses.

They are defending the right for daytime TV hosts like Rylan Clark to regurgitate misinformation and myths under the guise of telling it like it is.

So kudos to Raskin for not sparing the horses as he called out Farage for hoodwinking the UK public with lies, double standards and misinformation.

It should be a source of some shame, even embarrassment, for so many of the people here who could have done it sooner, that it has taken an American to tell him about himself.

Instead so many platforms in this country continue to legitimise the xenophobic rhetoric that has sparked the naked racism with which social media is now awash.

Kudos to Raskin for keeping receipts and producing them as he relied on the currency so many of our mainstream mouthpieces have abandoned - facts.

Kudos to Raskin for pointing out that while Farage was on Capitol Hill claiming a free speech crisis in England, one of his own councils had banned reporters from a local newspaper.

Kudos for Raskin for pointing out that “imposter” Farage cared so much for free speech in his homeland that he wasn’t even in the UK Parliament to advance his position there.

In fact, he was in the US where his mate Donald Trump and MAGA continue to crush that very fundamental civil liberty, “kidnapping college students off the street, banning books from our libraries…militaris[ing] our police and unleashing them against our communities”.

Kudos to Raskin for correctly charactering Farage’s bid for free speech as a movement to allow “racist threats against immigrants”.

Kudos to Raskin for taking apart the idea that UK free speech is under threat when Farage’s GB News show continues despite the Reform leader using it to call for a ban on peaceful protest that he disagrees with.

Kudos to Raskin for asking Farage why he’d called for a ban on a pro-Gaza protest if he was so in favour of free speech.

The more responsible outlets on Wednesday night were framing Raskin’s demolition of Farage correctly. He’d branded the Reform leader a ‘Putin-loving, free speech impostor’.

The BBC described it as a “clash” between the pair. It was nothing of the kind. It was a demolition. An embarrassment.

No tickling of his tummy of the like he is able to enjoy from the state broadcaster where he has a season ticket to flagship politics show Question Time.

No treating of a man with just four MPs as though he is the official opposition, as so many previously serious platforms continue to do.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler asked why the committee had sought evidence from “a fringe politician from the United Kingdom”, while another, Hank Johnson, asked Farage to confirm that Reform currently has four MPs.

There was no allowing the Reform leader to filibuster or pivot from questions he can’t answer to questions he preferred to.

Instead they exposed him and his opposition to the Online Safety Act - designed to protect children from harmful content - with their belief that Farage was Stateside as the UK Parliament was sitting in an attempt to solicit donations from Big Tech.

“You’re trying to ingratiate yourself with the tech bros.” Johnson said: “You need money from Elon Musk in order to get elected prime minister of Great Britain. That’s the bottom line.”

Even Farage's response undermined his own position.

“Elon Musk is abusive about me virtually every single week, but it’s a free country.”

Either way, a proper grilling. Real facts, real questions around the real concerns thrown up by Farage’s manifesto of hate.

So much so that he eventually ran off, claiming he’d had an appointment - only to give an interview to his own channel outside the chamber.

And while it would be easy to laugh at all this, lampooning his unmasking, it is a reminder of what we are at the mercy of in this country.

It is a reminder of how so many of the high profile people whose job it is to expose Farage’s bid to tear us apart are looking the other way.

Not all. Claire Byrne, RTE and Channel 4 News are among a number whose work continues to be outstanding.

The others are asking what is wrong with what Farage is saying. They are inviting him to answer his own questions in interviews.

They are describing his plans to make life a nightmare for foreigners as ‘novel’.

They should feel some shame after Wednesday’s humbling of Farage but they won’t.

They’ll continue to cheerlead for him, regardless of what it means for the kind of people they used to pride themselves on defending.

That’s why Raskin’s rampant razing of the Reform leader was so significant. We can only hope leads to a few Damascene conversions. But I wouldn’t hold your breath.