Columnist quits over Gaza article row
Mike Carlton has resigned as a columnist for Fairfax over his use of offensive language towards readers complaining about his recent column about the war in Gaza.
Fairfax head of business media Sean Aylmer confirmed Carlton’s resignation to 2UE this morning, saying there was no problem with his editorial column from July 26 on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Aylmer said the problem was the way Carlton treated readers after they contacted him with issues about both the column and accompanying cartoon.
“The column was fine. The issue wasn’t the printing of the column,” he said.
“What sort of got him into trouble was the way he responded to those readers, and it was totally inappropriate, using very inappropriate language.”
Aylmer said Sydney Morning Herald editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir rang Carlton yesterday and demanded he apologise for the comments, which reportedly included telling several critics to “f*** off” and calling one a “Jewish bigot”.
That night he resigned on the spot after Aylmer and Goodsir said they would suspend him.
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“He was apologetic. He accepted he had gone too far,” Aylmer said.
“As more emails emerged, we kind of figured we needed to suspend him because we certainly want to put the readers first and no one has the right to treat people that way.”
Yesterday, Goodsir himself apologised for the offensive language used by Carlton in correspondence with readers, calling his behaviour “completely unacceptable”.
It came the day after the newspaper also apologised for the column’s cartoon, which sparked criticism and accusations of racism.
The cartoon, by Glen Le Lievre, depicted an elderly man sitting in an armchair on a hilltop overlooking Gaza, and pointing a remote control towards where an explosion had just occurred below.
The man was drawn with a large nose, was wearing a kippah – a Jewish religious skullcap – and had a Star of David on the back of his chair.
Under the headline, “We apologise: publishing cartoon in original form was wrong”, the Herald said a “strong view” had been expressed in letters to the paper and public commentary that the cartoon “resembled illustrations that had circulated in Nazi Germany”.
Acknowledging “widespread reader and community reaction”, the Herald said it deeply regretted the upset the image had caused.
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However, it felt that no racial vilification had occurred.
Racial Discrimination changes dumped
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said this morning that the Federal Government had no plans to resurrect proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act which were dumped as part of the Coalition’s efforts to gain community support for a suite of anti-terror measures.
“It’s off the table. It’s gone. It’s disappeared,” Abbott said today.
He said axing 18C had become a “needless complication”, with ethic groups highly critical of the plans to water down protections against racism.
“I want the different communities of Australia to be our friends, not our critics, when it comes to cracking down on terrorism and cracking down on things that aid and abet terrorism,” he told ABC radio.
The move has angered free speech advocates, with Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson saying he will continue to lobby the government for change.
The Prime Minister also revealed he had spoken about the backdown to News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt, whose prosecution under the Racial Discrimination Act is believed to have sparked the government’s original proposals.
“I had a conversation with Andrew Bolt yesterday and explained that it was off the table,” Abbott said.
“I knew he would be disappointed.”
Section 18C makes it unlawful to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate on the basis of race, colour or national and ethnic origin.
