Magic Happens

The truth will out... even in Murdoch's Australian.

Herewith, a glimpse of the ructions at The Australian occasioned by the mysterious appearance of the words "Israel's cruel apartheid" in one of the paper's headlines:

"Editor of The Weekend Australian Nick Cater has apologised for an inflammatory headline that ran in the magazine last week, sparking outrage from Jewish readers... 'In a nutshell, it's a headline that shouldn't have got through, but did', Cater told The Australian Jewish News. 'It was deeply embarrassing because of the subject matter and because of the emotive and offensive nature of the words in the headline'. In a statement, Cater further distanced the publication from the offensive headline, and said he would review the procedures that failed to pick it up before the magazine went to print. 'It is extremely regrettable that a poor headline written against the pressure of deadline has let our readers down. At the very least, there should have been quote marks to indicate it was a view not a fact'. Cater said the slip-up did not represent a change to The Australian's longstanding policy of support for Israel. '[The editorial position of the paper] is as it has been since 1964 and is well known.. I like to think we're very consistent in our editorial line and our support for a democratic nation surrounded by hostile neighbours'. Cater also wrote to the Israeli embassy, explaining that, 'the headline was a reference to a contentious view expressed by a person interviewed in the article, and was not intended to be read as a statement of fact'." (Weekend Oz apologises for slur, The Australian Jewish News, 11/5/12)

Magic does indeed happen!

For the full story of this, The Australian's most insightful headline in 48 years, begin with these posts:
1) Consensus at Last... (7/5/12)
2) The Other Side of Israel's Jewish Character (8/5/12)
3) Down the Memory Hole (10/5/12)