Mike Carlton's 'On Air' 4

Great globs of bias and invention in the Murdoch gutter tradition...

"The Herald was getting twitchy. There was a snowstorm of letters to the editor from Jewish readers protesting furiously about the column, the headline and the Le Lievre cartoon. The cartoon drew the initial fire; a lot of people assumed I had drawn it, and written the headline as well. There were angry demands for me to be sacked. Dutifully, the editor published some of the more rational letters in the paper. Other people cancelled subscriptions. A number of Jewish-owned businesses withdrew their advertising... On the grapevine, I heard that directors on the Fairfax board were having their arms twisted and their ears bent, not least by the AIJAC. Many were receptive.

"On Monday, 4 August the editor-in-chief of the Herald, Darren Goodsir, publicly apologised for the cartoon. He also phoned to ask me to apologise to anyone I had offended. Reluctantly, I said I would consider it. The time bomb was ticking.

"Unsurprisingly, it exploded in the Murdoch press, led by the Australian and the Daily Telegraph. I had been on their notorious 'shit list' for years. The Australian had managed to get hold of the tweets and a lot of the emails I had sent to my attackers. The tweets were available for all to see, but the emails were not and obviously had been forwarded to the paper in a bunch. By whom? Your guess is as good as mine. The next day they were splashed in a long front-page story. It was heaven on a stick for the Murdochracy. There were two big birds to kill with one stone: the hated Fairfax press in general, and me in particular. Away they went. 'Fairfax Media is under pressure to sack columnist Mike Carlton, who has been ordered to apologise for using anti-Semitic and abusive language towards readers,' it began. On and on it went, a poisonous cocktail of a few facts heavily larded with great globs of bias and invention in the Murdoch gutter tradition. With malicious dishonesty, the paper mentioned not once the torrent of Jewish hatred which had prompted my response. There was not a syllable of the Nazi smear, the 'Hitler's bitch' stuff. The impression given - deliberately - was that I had exploded with rage at polite, reasoned criticism.

"I believe the Telegraph was even more vile in its attack on me. I never bothered to read what it ran - not then, not since - but I was told it splashed all over the shop as well. Somebody showed me the artwork they had confected. Against the background of a bombed and burning village, my head had been wrapped in a keffiyeh, the chequered Arab scarf, then photo-shopped onto the stooped and evidently fleeing body of a man in burned and tattered clothing. Carlton's a terrorist, geddit?" (pp 511-12)

To be continued...

Mike Carlton's 'On Air' 1

In earlier posts on the subject of Australian political memoirs that tackle the bullying ways of the Israel lobby, I dealt with those of former foreign minister Bob Carr and former prime minister Kevin Rudd, as well as journalist John Lyons' contribution to the genre, if I may call it that. It is now time to focus on the last of the four, journalist Mike Carlton's On Air (2018).

Those of you with long memories will perhaps recall that Carlton first came under attack in 2010 following his criticisms of Israel's Mavi Marmara massacre, prompting him to describe the lobby, in his Sydney Morning Herald column, as "a ferocious beast." (See my 12/6/10 post A Ferocious Beast.)

Then, in 2014, in the hardest-hitting opinion piece in the Australian corporate media on Israel's murderous Operation Protective Edge*, in which he accused the apartheid state of waging "a war of terror on the entire Gaza population," Carlton again came under attack from the aforementioned ferocious beast. (See my 27/7/14 post Carlton & Le Lievre Get Gaza.)

It is this lobby-orchestrated backlash that he deals with in some detail in his memoir.

He begins with the circumstances which led up to Operation Protective Edge and an account of its brutal 50-day course, and describes precisely what it was that led him to write his offending column, Israel's rank and rotten fruit is being called fascism:

"The ABC's Matt Brown reported for 7.30 on the killing of the four boys on the beach, interviewing the bereaved father and an eleven-year-old boy who had been injured by shrapnel but escaped. I watched his 7.30 story shaken to the marrow, choking back tears, achingly conscious of our own little boy peacefully asleep in his bedroom." (pp 504-05)

"With the column," he adds, "was a cartoon by the artist Glen Le Lievre, depicting a Jewish man seated in an armchair marked with a Star of David and operating a TV-style remote control to blow up a Gazan township. It was a pungent spin-off from news photographs - seen worlwide - of Israeli families relaxing with drinks and snacks on a border hillside as they watched Gaza being bombed in the near distance below. The column, its headline and the cartoon touched off a firestorm." (pp 505-06)

[*Sadly, typically, I'm not aware of any other.]

To be continued...

Glen Le Lievre: Cartoonist of the Year

Some good news:

"The Sun-Herald's Glen Le Lievre has been crowned cartoonist of the year, winning the Gold Stanley at the annual Stanley Awards in Parramatta on Saturday night. It comes after he was named a finalist in the Walkley Awards for two of his Herald cartoons." (Sun-Herald cartoonist tops, The Sun-Herald, 13/11/16)

No commentator on political affairs is worth the time of day unless he/she passes the Palestine/Israel test. In the field of political cartooning, Glen Le Lievre, like Michael Leunig before him, has passed that test with flying colours. So congratulations, Glen, on your well-deserved award.

For the trials and tribulations of Glen Le Lievre on this subject, simply click on the Le Lievre label below and familiarise/ re-familiarise yourself with the whole sorry saga of the risks involved in telling the plain truth about Palestine/Israel in Australia's mainstream media.

The Herald 'Apologises'

Blink and you'd have missed it. The Sydney Morning Herald 'apologises' for its Islamophobe-in-residence, Paul Sheehan, without mentioning his name:

"In last Monday's paper, the Herald reported the details of an alleged sexual assault under the headline 'The horrifying untold story of Louise.' A subsequent column printed in last Thursday's edition, 'The story of Louise: why the police have no case to answer, but I do,' acknowledged key elements of the original story were unable to be substantiated. The original story, which has been corrected, included aspersions against the Middle Eastern community and raised untested allegations of inaction against the NSW Police. The Herald sincerely regrets the hurt and distress this report caused to these groups, and unreservedly apologises." (Apology, 29/2/16)*

And then, adding insult to 'apology', the Herald publishes the following letter of appreciation to Sheehan/concern for 'Louise' in the same edition:

"I very much appreciate Paul Sheehan's honesty and admission to his mistake but am a little perplexed. Does this mean 'Louise' was never raped or beaten up and spent two months in hospital? I would very much appreciate an explanation. It appears in the second article that Louise is a troubled soul. However, if any of her comments are true they need to be considered. I am also concerned that the police advised her that they were unable to assist as she reported the incident four months after and therefore it was too late; this does not ring true. I do hope that you can get to the bottom of this unpleasant situation." Linda Ward, Tweed Heads South

[*Compare the above paragraph with the Herald's elaborate, multi-paragraph grovel to the Israel lobby for the supposed offence of its cartoonist Glen Le Lievre in depicting Israel's enjoyment of Gaza's agony under Israeli attack in 2014. (See my 4/8/14 post Sustained Israel lobby barrage cripples SMH.)] 

SMH: Independent. No More.

"More stringent approval procedures for cartoons have been introduced at The Sydney Morning Herald, following the publication of a cartoon last year that was described as 'clearly anti-Semitic' by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry." (Gaza cartoon breached Press Council standards, Australian Jewish News, 23/1/15)

So begins the AJN's report on the Press Council's adjudication of Glen Le Lievre's Gaza cartoon. (You can read the PC's adjudication, and my comments on same, in my 20/1/15 post Je Suis Le Lievre & Carlton.) The only real interest in the AJN's report, however, lies in its airing of SMH editor Darren (Yes Sir!) Goodsir's comments on just how Herald staff are now being put through their paces by Zionist trainers:

"Previously section editors had been able to approve illustrations themselves but I raised that, so that myself or the news director, who is effectively my deputy, would need to approve all illustrations,' Goodsir said. He said that there have been several positive outcomes from what was clearly a bad situation. 'The other thing that I did last year, and intend to do again this year, was work with the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD) to run a two-hour talk and Q&A session about anti-Semitism.' Goodsir said the first half was about the history of anti-Semitism, and how the media has played a role in that, while the second half was a very productive conversation between the JBOD presenters and senior editors about how things can be interpreted in different ways."

Oh to be a fly on the wall!

And now that Vic Alhadeff (of JBoD) has his foot well and truly in the door, I can see these "very productive conversations" really taking off - wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean? (See my 9/2/12 post The Chosen.) 

But if you think it's only Herald editors who are getting the treatment, check out what's going down at NSW Police HQ (see my 28/10/11 post Israel 101 for Cops) or in your nearest high school (see my 14/12/13 post Building Bridges... to Israel).

Je Suis Le Lievre & Carlton

Remember Glen Le Lievre's powerful cartoon in last year's Sydney MorningHerald, drawn as Israel was 'mowing the grass' in the Gaza Ghetto, and many Israelis - with kippahs (some incorporating the Star of David) and without - were enjoying the spectacle from a nearby hill (some sitting in lounge chairs)?

Remember the knee-jerk allegations of anti-Semitism which followed it?

Remember the equally powerful essay by columnist Mike Carlton which shared the page with it?

Remember how the Herald got the wobbles when the usual suspects began hurling the usual accusations of anti-Semitism at him?

Remember how Carlton ended up resigning from the paper rather than kiss the ring?

Remember the dark threats in Murdoch's Australian about "the organised [Jewish] community getting legal advice and looking closely at its options"?

Well, here's the final (?) chapter in the saga - Press Council Adjudication 1634 of January 15, the subject of which, I note, is exclusively Le Lievre's cartoon. What rubbish it is:

"The Press Council has considered whether its Standards of Practice were breached by a cartoon in the Sydney Morning Herald on 26 July 2014. It was associated with an opinion piece on the conflict in Gaza and depicted an elderly man with a large nose, wearing the distinctively Jewish head covering called a kippah or yarmulke, and sitting in an armchair emblazoned with the Star of David. He was pointing a TV remote control device at an exploding cityscape, implied to be Gaza. Implied to be Gaza!

"The Council asked the publication to comment on whether the cartoon had placed gratuitous emphasis on race or religion. It also asked the publication whether the cartoon could reasonably have expected to cause offence and showed insufficient concern for balancing the sensibilities of some readers with the broader public interest.

"In response, the publication agreed that the cartoon had placed gratuitous emphasis on the Jewishness of its subject and in so doing had inappropriately emphasised religious persuasion rather than Israeli nationality, thereby causing offence. It pointed out that a 650-word apology had been published about a week later."

So the cartoon was thought too Jewish and insufficiently Israeli. The kippah is Jewish, but worn by countless Israelis, including, when it suits him, Netanyahu. The Star of David is Jewish, but is emblazoned on every Israeli flag and death-dealing fighter jet, not to mention on many Israeli kippahs.

If Le Lievre inappropriately emphasised religious persuasion that is because Israel itself, through its appropriation of Jewish religious symbols for its own political ends, inappropriately emphasises religious persuasion.

"The publication also pointed out that the newspaper's Editor in Chief and News Director had subsequently participated in seminars facilitated by the Jewish Board of Deputies to raise awareness about the imagery that could be construed as anti-Semitic. It said further seminars were planned and would be expanded to include the newspaper's senior editorial staff.

"The publication also said that a requirement for extra layers of approval had been introduced for all cartoons prior to publication."

So much for the Herald's slogan "Independent. Always."

"Conclusions: The Council emphasises that cartoons are subject to its Standards of Practice. The application of those standards however, takes account of the fact that readers can reasonably be expected to recognise that cartoons commonly use exaggeration and caricature to a considerable degree and therefore should be interpreted by them with this in mind.

"In this instance, the cartoon's linkage between the Jewish faith and the Israeli rocket attacks on Gaza was reasonably likely to cause great offence to many readers. A linkage with Israeli nationality might have been justifiable in the public interest, despite being likely to cause offence. But the same cannot be said of the implied linkage with the Jewish faith that arose from inclusion of the kippah and the Star of David. Accordingly, the Council's Standards of Practice were breached on the ground of causing greater offence to readers' sensibilities than was justifiable in the public interest.

"The Council welcomes the prominent, extensive and closely-reasoned apology by the publication and its subsequent action to reduce the risk of repetition. The Council commends this approach to other publications."

For the genesis of this complaint to the Press Council see my 7/12/14 post The Whinge Goes On.

As for Mike Carlton, our Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson referred in yesterday's Australian to Carlton "facing a complaint under 18C because of his disgraceful anti-Semitic language." (Charlie Hebdo v 18C: no contest)

Mike's tweeted response (18/1): "I used no 'disgraceful anti-Semitic language' and was not pinged by 18C. Tim Wilson is a posturing fuckwit."

The Whinge Goes On

"The Sydney Morning Herald could be forced to defend its decision to run an anti-Semitic cartoon..." (Fairfax faces press council showdown over anti-Semitic cartoon, Nicola Berkovic, The Australian, 5/11/14)

Notice how you can't even complete a sentence in Murdoch's Australian without encountering a problem? In this case, it's the anti-Semitism smear. This ferociously Zionist rag has merely to assert anti-Semitism for it to be so.

"... and an accompanying article by former columnist Mike Carlton at the Australian Press Council. A Sydney engineer, Wayne Karlen, 60, and two Jewish readers have lodged a complaint with the press council about the publication of the cartoon and column, arguing they are 'racist', 'severely biased', 'inflammatory' and 'highly offensive'."

Nothing new here, of course. These are the usual Zionist whinge-words trotted out on those rare occasions when someone in the ms media, sufficiently moved by the plight of the Palestinian people at Israeli hands, manages to find the words (or, in the case of cartoonists, the images) to adequately convey the brutality of Israel's war crimes. The cartoonist in question is, of course, Glen Le Lievre. (Just click on the Carlton and/or Le Lievre labels below for a backgrounder.)

"Mr Karlen, who is not Jewish..."

Presumably, this makes him an objective observer.

"... said his late father had fought the Nazis in World War II and he found the publication distressing. 'It was important for me at the outset to complain because I identified with anti-Semitism and Nazi propaganda because my father served in the Royal Canadian Airforce,' he said. 'That was a terrible time and terrible history and to see that replicated in a relatively respectable newspaper... I just thought it was wrong'. The cartoon... showed a Jew with a hooked nose casually destroying Gaza. The image... also included a Star of David."

So Karlen "IDENTIFIED WITH anti-Semitism and Nazi propaganda"? Work that one out if you can.

What's striking, however, isn't the man's pathetic incoherence, but how someone with an alleged concern for what the Nazis did to European Jewry can so completely ignore, unlike Carlton and Le Lievre, bless them, what the Israelis got up to in the course of their latest Massacre Protective Edge (8/7-26/8) in Gaza, namely, to cite the findings of the Russell Tribunal's Emergency Session on same, war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of murder, extermination and persecution, and incitement to genocide.

Thankfully the Herald has so far resisted yet another surrender to Karlen and friends:

"Mr Karlen said the trio decided to lodge the press council complaint after failed attempts by the Human Rights Commission to broker a settlement with Fairfax."

I for one, however, won't be holding my breath.

Using Section 18C to Silence Critics of Israel

The very public campaign waged against the Abbott government's proposal to drop Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act was largely orchestrated and spearheaded by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), one of the prongs of Australia's Israel lobby, allegedly because 18C was needed as a defence against an imminent outbreak of Fredrick Toben-style Holocaust denialists. (See my posts George Brandis Launches Zionist Festival of Hypocrisy (30/3/14) and Why I Can't Get Too Excited Over Section 18C (1/5/14))

The pressure and the hype duly worked its magic and the government backed down. Of course, Abbott couldn't possibly admit to be heavied by the lobby, so some other excuse had to be found. And found it was:

"The Prime Minister said he had made a 'leadership call' to abandon the changes, because they had become a 'complication' in the Government's relationship with the Muslim community. 'When it comes to counter-terrorism, everyone needs to be part of Team Australia,' Mr Abbott said." (Government backtracks on Racial Discrimination Act 18C changes; pushes ahead with tough security laws, Emma Griffiths, abc.net.au, 6/8/14)

Muslims again! The cynicism is breathtaking. As Herald columnist Waleed Aly put it:

"The announcement wasn't altogether surprising, but the context for it was. Suddenly section 18C would be left as a figleaf for Muslims; a kind of transfer fee for their recruitment to 'Team Australia'. Consider how that looks if you believe - as presumably the government still does - this section is an egregious attack on free speech. Apparently we must live under its yoke to appease Muslims in the hope they'll help us fight terrorism. We're being held to ransom again. Muslims are the Grinch who stole freedom. The truth, of course, is that Muslims are largely peripheral to both issues... [W]hilst I have met Muslims who were unimpressed by the government's plans for the Racial Discrimination Act, it seems an unusual red line for them to draw given that Muslims aren't even protected by it. The law doesn't regard Muslims as a racial group. So, whatever it is section 18C prevents you from saying about Aborigines or Asians or Jews, you can go right ahead and say it against Muslims." (Abbott's 18C puzzle linking terror and free speech raises interesting political questions, 8/8/14)

What Ali doesn't allude to, of course, is ECAJ's crucial role in the campaign to retain 18C, or the bizarre fact that, as far as the RDA is concerned, Jews are deemed a racial group. Nor does he allude to the real reason our Israel lobbyists fought so hard to retain Section 18C: its utility as a weapon against those who buck the party line on Israel.

For example:

"The controversial 18C provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act will be used in a complaint against The Sydney Morning Herald over its anti-Semitic cartoon and the accompanying article by former columnist, Mike Carlton. A Sydney-based engineer, Wayne Karlen, 60, has lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission arguing the publication of the cartoon and the column caused offence to Australian Jews. Mr Karlen also referenced the subsequent abuse of readers by Carlton, stating in the complaint that The SMH has committed an unlawful act within the meaning of the RDA. 'This cartoon racially vilifies Jews and the similarity to Nazi propaganda compounds the distress to those of us that had relatives fight and die in WWII,' he said. 'The absence of a strong formal censure for publishing this racist and offensive material conveys an appearance of official acceptance of same.' Mr Karlen, who is not Jewish, said he decided to lodge the complaint on Tuesday after the ABC's Media Watch defended the cartoon and Carlton the night before. 'The suggestion by the public broadcaster and others that this cartoon is acceptable must be refuted in the strongest terms and those responsible for its dissemination must be held responsible,' he said. 'The publication of this cartoon has caused offence to and racially vilifies Jews and was done to portray Jews as murderers of men, women and children for entertainment. The publication of this cartoon has caused intimidation and contributed to the Jewish community becoming afraid for their safety living in Australia and has offended their friends and supporters.' In addition to Mr Karlen, The Australian understands at least one member of the Jewish community has also lodged a complaint with the commission under section 18C, although Jewish organisations have stated they will not be taking similar action in light of the Herald's apology. Mr Karlen suggests the Herald should be publicly censured and receice [sic] a 'significant fine' that could be donated to an accredited Jewish charity... The Herald's editorial position supported the retention of 18C..." (18C used to sue Carlton for racial vilification, Sharri Markson, The Australian, 14/8/14)

Independent? Always? Really?

Is the following promo yet more evidence of the Sydney Morning Herald's cowardice in the wake of the Carlton/Le Lievre affair? Is it the price the Herald believes it has to pay to appease certain subscribers/advertisers? Is the hosting of unvarnished Israel lobby propaganda about to become as regular a feature of the paper as it is of The Australian?

Found at the bottom of the Herald's opinion page yesterday:

"Like lambs to the slaughter: It's time to get to the root of the problem in Gaza. That problem is not the occupation. The problem is Hamas, an Islamist terror organisation which keeps using Gaza's civilians as sacrificial lambs. Read Mark Leibler's article on-line at smh.com.au/content"

To Moir or Not to Moir?

While on the subject of political cartoonists, I thought I'd draw your attention to an act of self-plagiarism.

You might remember my 31/7/14 post, Moir: The Herald's Gift to Israel, on the Herald cartoonist's lamentable comment on Operation Protective Edge.

This is what I wrote at the time:

"Moir's cartoon in today's Sydney Morning Herald is an utter disgrace. It incorporates the standard Zionist propaganda line about Palestinian 'militants' using civilians as human shields, with a Hamas fighter aiming an RPG from behind a baby carriage at an incoming missile fired from an Israeli helicopter. Both the Hamas fighter and the helicopter are screaming 'COWARD!' at each other. The piece is irrelevantly titled 'WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS'."

Serendipitously, a cartoon of Moir's from the time of Israel's earlier (08/09) Operation Cast Lead has come into my possession. It shows the exact same Hamas fighter + RPG + baby, only this time in the bottom right hand corner of the cartoon. On the left, instead of an Israeli helicopter, we have an Israeli tank with its gun barrel pointed directly at the Hamas fighter. Both are screaming 'COWARD!' at each other. The piece is titled 'THE PR WAR'. It's dated 15/1/09.

There is, of course, something far more important at stake here than a mere act of intellectual laziness, namely the issue of free speech ( including its corollary, freedom from being smeared for merely exercising freedom of speech).

To return to the case of Moir's cartoonist colleague, Glen Le Lievre. It should be obvious by now that if, like Moir or The Australian's Bill Leak, you're the kind of journalist (I include political cartoonists in this category) who mindlessly recycles Zionist canards, then you're safe from the smear of anti-Semitism. If, on the other hand, like Le Lievre (and Age cartoonist Michael Leunig), you not only understand and feel for the plight of the Palestinian people, but are courageous enough to express it publicly, then expect to be smeared as an anti-Semite.

The smear, of course, has nothing whatever to do with protecting Jews as Jews. It has only one aim: protecting Israel from justified criticism.

The smear works by forcing editors and journalists to always weigh the consequences of speaking out on this important issue. It thus inhibits the telling of inconvenient (to some) but necessary truths.

As Leunig, who has had to weather the smear on behalf of the Palestinians, said in a statement to ABC Television's Media Watch on August 7:

"Every time an editor is forced to back down and make an apology it means the next time a difficult cartoon is put to him he won't take the risk... I think we need to be careful of getting rid of the truth-speakers because that's their job. It's the cartoonists who have traditionally stood up for persecuted minoritis whether they be Jews in the 1930s or Palestinians today."

To adapt Shakespeare's Hamlet, if a political cartoonist has to ask himself every time he feels moved to comment on the genocide in Palestine, To Moir or not to Moir? That is the question.., you know there's definitely something rotten in the state of Denmark.

The Smearing of Glen Le Lievre

I wasn't even aware of The Australian's media editor, Sharri Markson, until last week's media mugging of Fairfax columnist Mike Carlton. It was her journalistic high-fiving with colleague Darren Davidson over the matter that first brought her to my attention. (See my 8/8/14 post, The Australian: The Herald Buckles to the Bullies.)

Having recovered (one assumes) from this excess of schadenfreude, she's now taken it upon herself to hammer home the false allegation that the Glen Le Lievre cartoon which accompanied Carlton's July 26 piece on Gaza is anti-Semitic. It seems that we can now expect to see this smear repeated over and over again in the Murdoch press in the hope that, for the credulous and the uncritical, it will become received wisdom:

"In an exclusive interview, [former Fairfax chief executive] Mr McCarthy said it is 'obvious' recent events including publication of an anti-Semitic cartoon, columnist Mike Carlton's abuse of readers and the quality of editorial management, were a direct result of the loss of experience on the Fairfax board." (Fairfax board to blame: ex-CEO, Sharri Markson, 11/8/14)

"Former Fairfax directors agreed with ex-chief executive Brian McCarthy that a lack of leadership by Mr Corbett... was ultimately to blame for events of the past two weeks, where readers were abused by columnist Mike Carlton and were offended by the publication of an anti-Semitic cartoon, similar to imagery from 1930s Germany." (Corbett not competent, says Singleton, Sharri Markson, 11/8/14)

"It took 10 days for The SMH editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir to apologise for the publication of an anti-Semitic cartoon showing a Jewish man with a hooked-nose sitting on a chair with the Star of David, casually pressing a remote control to blow up Gaza." (ibid)

Sadly, those who should know better but, it seems, wouldn't know confected Zionist outrage if it hit them in the face, are retailing the smear:

"Right for SMH to apologise for Gaza cartoon. As a Jew it disturbed me. But those who claim SMH editors are anti-Semitic are wrong." (Jonathan Swan tweet, 3/8/14)

"As to the cartoon that ran with one of those columns, he had no more to do with that than I have to do with whatever cartoon Reg runs with this column. And the Herald was right to apologise for the offence and trauma that image caused." (Peter FitzSimons, The Fitz Files, The Sun-Herald, 10/8/14)

"Now we agree that that cartoon went too far..." (Paul Barry, Media Watch, 11/8/14)

"SMH cartoon racist and to be profoundly regretted; Calton not. If Carlton's a-Semitic, then I must be too, bec'se I opposed Gaza." (Thomas Keneally tweet, 12/8/14)

Mike Carlton really needs to come out in support of Le Lievre. His August 3 tweet "Chairs," which juxtaposed a photograph of the Sderot Cinema mob* watching the 'fireworks' in Gaza with a shot of a Palestinian youth sitting on a lounge chair surrounded by his ruined home is insufficient in light of the above.

As for Le Lievre's reaction to the smear, check out his July 27 tweets.

PS (6: 20pm):

"My last word. Pls don't desert the fine journalists @smh. That's exactly what the toxic sludge at News Corpse wants you to do. Thanks guys." Mike Carlton tweet today.

"Don't forget the fabulous cartoonist @MikeCarlton01@smh." Tony, Retweeted by Mike Carlton.

A Muslim Boycott of the Herald?

I have some issues with the following Guardian Australia report. Not, I hasten to add, with the report per se, but rather with some of the positions taken by the organisations cited in it:

"Australian Islamic groups have condemned the Sydney Morning Herald for threatening the suspension of columnist Mike Carlton and accused Fairfax of losing its independence. In a letter to the Fairfax chief executive, Greg Hywood, and editor-in-chief, Darren Goodsir, the Australian National Imams Council of NSW and Muslim Legal Network NSW, among others, said they would boycott the SMH unless the outspoken columnist was reinstated... The letter to Fairfax said the Muslim groups would consider notifying community organisations and spokespersons to cease cooperating with Fairfax journalists for media interviews." (Islamic groups threaten SMH boycott over Mike Carlton's departure, Amanda Meade, 9/8/14)

Fair enough. I'm all for Muslim (or any other) community organisations condemning and boycotting the weak-kneed Herald over Mike Carlton's resignation. But why, I'd like to know, has the rabidly pro-Zionist and thoroughly Islamophobic Murdoch press never, as far as I'm aware, elicited a similar response by these organisations?

"'As representatives of the Muslim community we have always regarded Fairfax to be one of the more balanced media organisations in the country...', it said."  (ibid)

Are they serious? While the Herald isn't quite the echo-chamber for Zionist propaganda and Islamophobia that the Murdoch press is, it can hardly be held up as a real counterweight to it. While the reports of its Middle East correspondent Ruth Pollard are generally sound (as are those of The Australian's ME correspondent John Lyons), when it comes to the Palestine/Israel conflict, its opinion pieces are invariably pro-Israel, its editorials are as weak as the proverbial piss (none so far on the latest genocidal pounding of Gaza BTW), and its ME-related cartoons by Moir woefully clueless. Then there's its ubiquitous and reliably Arabo- Islamophobic columnist, Paul Sheehan, who has never, to my knowledge, drawn a complaint from our Muslim bodies.

"The Muslim community groups also condemned the [Glen Le Lievre] cartoon that accompanied Carlton's column. 'It was indeed a racist cartoon that implicated the Jewish people in the actions of the Israeli state by using Jewish symbolism and stereotype,' the letter said."  (ibid)

What rubbish! If the cartoon is anti-Semitic for using Jewish symbolism, so too is the Israeli state. I mean, haven't the authors of this letter ever seen an Israeli flag? And what is this expression "the Jewish people" doing in their letter? This is stock standard Zionist dogma FFS! If these organisations really want to finger a racist cartoon why aren't they gunning for the one by The Australian's cartoonist Bill Leak, showing a Hamas 'terrorist' telling his son "There! Now you go out to play and win the PR war for daddy"?

Truly, these organisations really need to get their act together before putting pen to paper.

A Tale of Amazing Grace: The Pennies Who Once Were Lost But Now Are Found

Hallelujah! Herewith a tale to warm the cockles of one's heart:

"Prominent Australians have stopped buying Fairfax Media's The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age over their bias against Israel in the Middle East conflict. One of Australia's leading immunologists, highly regarded professor Ron Penny, and his wife, Naomi, said they stopped their subscription last week after a life spent reading The SMH. 'We've been married 54 years and we've had the Herald on our kitchen table all those years, and before that my parents bought it,' Ms Penny said. 'It's 75 years of receiving The SMH daily six days a week. After reading the Mike Carlton article and seeing that cartoon, we decided that whatever happens we cannot possibly subscribe to a publication that could print anything as totally ignorant and odious as that. Thank god we can live without that horrible publication.' Professor Penny said as soon as they had cancelled the Herald, they immediately subscribed to The Australian. 'We're very pleased that your source exists, otherwise where would we have the opportunity to be comfortable that we're reading information that is unbiased and not as disgusting as at Fairfax and the ABC?' he said." (Furious readers desert Fairfax, Sharri Markson & Darren Davidson, The Australian, 4/8/14)

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound... Seventy-five years of wandering in the media wilderness before reaching the promised land!

Now that the penny's finally dropped for the Pennies, and they've jointly fainted into the several waiting arms of Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan, Rebecca Weisser, Gerard Henderson, Christian Kerr, Bill Leak and the rest of the 'Praise Israel and Pass the Ammo' Brethren over at at The Australian, they can spend the rest of their lives sitting back and wondering how it was that they were able to live all those years with "that horrible publication" poisoning the Herzlian sanctity of hearth and home.

But there's more! Now you know for a fact why the usual suspects pulled all stops out to save Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Don't say I didn't warn you:

"Members of the community have lodged separate complaints with the Australian Press Council and under 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act... A senior member of the community said an official course of action was still being determined. 'The organised community is still getting legal advice and looking closely at its options,' he said." (ibid)

The Australian Glasses the Herald

Is it just me, or are Israel's massacres in Gaza beginning to lose oxygen to a confected Murdoch press campaign on the issue of whether or not a certain Fairfax cartoonist's and/or columnist's commentary on those massacres can be characterised as anti-Semitic or not?

Certainly, it will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Murdoch's flagship, The Australian, that it is currently cock-a-hoop over the Sydney Morning Herald editor's backdown over Glen Le Lievre's powerful cartoon comment on Israeli barbarism. Yesterday's edition, for example, contained the following 'story':

"North shore reader Renee Glass received an apologetic phone call from [Herald editor Darren] Goodsir. Mrs Glass said she told Goodsir that after 28 years as a Herald reader, she was 'disgusted' by his paper's coverage of Israel. At one stage, Goodsir said to me, 'I'm not an anti-Semite'. I said to him, 'I'm not saying that, but you're responsible for the content of your newspaper', Mrs Glass said. It took her more than 10 minutes to cancel her subscription earlier in the day. 'The guy didn't want to take our cancellation and put us through to a woman in another department who kept my husband on the phone for 10 minutes. She was begging him not to cancel', Mrs Glass said." (Cartoon costs Fairfax readers, ads, Sharri Markson/ Darren Davidson, 5/8/14)

Frankly, I don't believe a word of it.

I mean, are we seriously expected to believe that Mr & Mrs Glass, faithful Herald readers for 28 years, are now recoiling from it in disgust, as though from a copy of Der Sturmer? Or that the Glasses, who apparently find Carlton and Le Lievre more unpalatable than Israel's murderous rampage in Gaza, would ever have chosen the Herald over our very own Antipodean Jerusalem Post, The Australian?

Moreover are we also seriously expected to believe that our suddenly outraged North Shore Herald subscriber, Renee, is a mere innocent bystander in the matter when a little googling reveals that the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has posted a February 9 letter from her to Oxfam, defending the existence of a SodaStream factory in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and condemning the BDS movement as destructive? (facebook.com/ECAJewry)

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy...

Quality false symmetry:

"The Israelis and Palestinians are killing each other, dreadful enough as more than 1700 people have been killed to date." (How to rein in the dogs of war, Peter Hartcher, Sydney Morning Herald, 5/8/14)

Recycled Zionist talking points with a dash of Islamophobia:

"Hamas wanted strategic blows. It wants jihad." (The Hamas trap: hidden labyrinth was wired for war, Paul Sheehan, Sydney Morning Herald, 4/8/14)

What I really mean is that Sheehan confirms my prejudices, while Carlton challenges them:

"Paul Sheehan appears to have a better grip on the reality of the matter than Mike Carlton..." (Letter of Philip Cohen, Brighton-le-Sands, SMH, 5/8/14)

Views that madden to crime:

"Well said, Herald, it takes courage and understanding to admit a mistake that caused distress to some readers ('We apologise: publishing cartoon in original form was wrong', August 4)." (Letter of Denis Suttling, Newport Beach, SMH, 5/8/14)

Working wonders with the passive voice:

"Palestinians kill three innocent Israeli youths in the West Bank. In response, an innocent Palestinian teenager is killed." (Letter of George Fishman, The Australian, 4/8/14)

Brandis & Turnbull Put Boot Into SMH

That valiant crusader for FOSEEP (freedom of speech everywhere except Palestine), Attorney-General Senator George Brandis, might struggle with the term 'Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory'*, but he sure-as-hell knows that federal parliament is Israeli-occupied territory. Hence:

"I thought the [Le Lievre] cartoon was deplorable... I would have thought a responsible media organisation would have a very good look at itself when it publishes a cartoon (of) the kind we haven't seen since Germany in the 1930s.'... Asked if the cartoon amounted to racial vilification and could encourage or incite others to hate Jews, Senator Brandis said: 'It certainly constitutes a racial form of stereotyping. I think The Sydney Morning Herald... ought to be very careful about the almost overtly anti-Semitic tone some of their commentary, including their editorial cartoon, have adopted'." (Brandis slams Fairfax newspaper over 'anti-Semitic' cartoon, Darren Davidson, The Australian, 4/8/14)

(What a God-sent opportunity, BTW, for Brandis to make up for the grief he'd given the lords of the Israel lobby over his move to kill off Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act!)

Another government politician exceedingly mindful of the fact that federal parliament is Israeli-occupied territory is Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Which explains this quite extraordinary intervention:

"It is understood... Turnbull rang [Herald editor Darren] Goodsir to lambast him for running the cartoon, which he deemed anti-Semitic and offensive to many of his constituents in his eastern Sydney electorate." (ibid)

Meanwhile, back in the real world, aka Gaza:

"Mohamed Badran is just 10 years old but already he has lost more than most people will lose in a lifetime. He is the only surviving member of his immediate family of 10 following an Israeli airstrike on his home in the crowded Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza on July 30. Doctors are now trying to save one of his eye sockets so he can have at least one prosthetic eye, but so severe is his head injury that even that is touch and go. Mohamed has no idea that his parents, brothers and sisters are gone, says one of his doctors, Ghassan Abu-Sitta, a volunteer reconstructive surgeon working at Gaza's Shifa Hospital. He is also unaware he is blind. 'He keeps asking why we have switched the lights off,' Dr Abu-Sitta says. 'Mohammed is going to need at least 10 surgeries to reconstruct his eye socket,' he adds, warning: 'Israel is creating a generation of disabled adults... and for these kids, there is no one left to care for them'." (Health crisis looms amid carnage, Ruth Pollard, Sydney Morning Herald, 4/8/14)

[*See my 7/6/14 post Lap Dancing for Israel.]

Sustained Israel Lobby Barrage Cripples SMH

What I feared has come to pass: a massive Israel lobby barrage of confected outrage has scored a direct hit on the Sydney Morning Herald, completely destroying its slogan, 'Independent. Always.' The sound of popping champagne corks and excited South African accents can be heard from lobby redoubts in Sydney's east even as we speak.

Warning: the following editorial contains instances of extreme grovelling that may cause nausea in some readers:

 "There has been widespread reader and community reaction during the past 10 days over a cartoon that was used to illustrate an opinion piece by columnist Mike Carlton on the conflict in Gaza. Much of that concern was borne out publicly on our letters pages - and there has continued to be commentary and correspondence that has sought to make sense of the conflict. The Herald has drawn opinions from a wide variety of sources to help readers to understand the causes of, and the possible ways to end, the war between Hamas and Israel. Deeply critical exchanges have taken place over the opinions expressed in Mr Carlton's column, and properly so, as we invite debate over any column we publish. But the Herald has also fielded a number of accusations of racism over the cartoon.

"Today, the Herald wishes to apologise for this distress, draw a line under the debate about the cartoon, and return focus back to the events in Israel and Gaza.

"The cartoon showed an elderly man, with a large nose, sitting alone, with a remote control device in his hand, overseeing explosions in Gaza. The armchair in which he was sitting was emblazoned with the Star of David, and the man was wearing a kippah, a religious skullcap. A strong view was expressed that the cartoon, by Glen Le Lievre, closely resembled illustrations that had circulated in Nazi Germany. These are menacing cartoons that continue to haunt and traumatise generations of Jewish people.

"In addressing individual and community concern after the publication of the cartoon on July 26, the Herald looked to the fact that Mr Le Lievre's distinctive drawing style routinely sees old people depicted with large noses and pronounced facial features. It is the way he draws and his visual archive, dating back many years, confirms this. It was also significant that the cartoon had its genesis in news photographs of men seated in chairs and lounges, observing the shelling of Gaza from the hills of Sderot. One of those photos depicted an old man, wearing a kippah, reclining casually as part of a group - with Mr Le Lievre seeing comparisons between this and someone watching their television; hence the remote control. Another photo portrayed a lone man on a large couch - and thus the cartoon blended these two images.

"The Herald deeply regretted the upset the image had caused, but felt - not least because the cartoonist lacked any intent and that actual photographs influenced the setting and physical depiction of the character in the cartoon - that no racial vilification had occurred.

"However, this newspaper accepts that this position was too simplistic and ignored the use of religious symbols. The Herald now appreciates that, in using the Star of David and the kippah in the cartoon, the newspaper invoked an inappropriate element of religion, rather than nationhood, and made a serious error of judgment. It was wrong to publish the cartoon in its original form. We apologise unreservedly for this lapse, and the anguish and distress that has been caused.

"Our commitment remains to reporting in a fair and balanced way on the appalling events in Israel and Gaza, where our correspondent, Ruth Pollard, is currently based, witnessing daily the horrors of war. The devastation being inflicted on innocent men, women and children, on livestock and property, has shocked a world that has become all too comfortable with its own indifference - with all sides in the conflict being condemned by the United Nations for unconscionable practices. All the while, the world earnestly hopes and waits, so far in vain, for a lasting ceasefire and a sustainable peace - a resolution that will stay the blood and the tears." (We apologise: publishing cartoon in original form was wrong, 4/8/14)

You can read my posts on this issue, beginning with Carlton & Le Lievre Get Gaza (27/7/14), by simply clicking on the 'Mike Carlton' label below. Note that the Herald has been subjected to threats of legal action and a boycott by the usual suspects.

Israel lobby 1, Free Speech 0.

The Carlton/Le Lievre Backlash 5

Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton, and cartoonist Glen Le Lievre, are predictably the latest "terror targets" for The Australian Jewish [sic: Zionist] News.

So heinous is their 'crime' that they've been the subject (along with Chanel 9's 60 Minutes) of a massive front page editorial bombardment in the August 1 issue. Here's the relevant bit:

"As for Carlton's column, that was altogether more insidious. Not only were we treated to baseless accusations of 'genocide' and 'ethnic cleansing' on Israel's part, but then there was a subtle shift. These were crimes being committed by 'a people with a proud liberal tradition of scholarship and culture, who hold the Warsaw Ghetto and the six million dead of the Holocaust at the centre of their race memory'.

"This column was no longer about a country, this was about a people and a race - a people and a race who should know better because of what they themselves went through. In short, you Jews are the same as the Nazis, worse perhaps because you choose to ignore the lessons of your own history.

"How low can a columnist in a mainstream newspaper sink?

"And then, to illustrate the point, a cartoon featuring a big-nosed, bespectacled Jew, the kind that would have featured in Der Sturmer, wearing a kippah and with a Star of David scrawled on the back of his armchair - just in case it wasn't quite clear he was Jewish - pressing a remote control that detonates an explosion in Gaza...

"If you haven't done so already, consider cancelling your Fairfax subscriptions today." (MEDIA DISGRACE: Shame on those Australian journalists who are fanning the flames of hatred against Jews and Israel)

The confected outrage on display here highlights the always shifting goalposts of the Zionist propaganda game.

On the one hand, the targeted journalists (Carlton & Le Lievre) are slammed (a fave Murdoch/Zionist press word) for allegedly not differentiating between Israel and Jews in general. On the other, this accusation comes from a rag in which every effort, in every issue, in true Zionist style, is made to conflate being a Jew with support for Israel.

The Carlton/Le Lievre Backlash 4

Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton witing in today's edition:

"As I predicted, the abusive emails and tweets have been thundering in all week, hundreds of them. The Israel lobby - or as I prefer it, the Likud lobby - rose in fury at last week's column about Israel's war crimes against civilians in Gaza.

"I lost count of the number of times I was called a Nazi. A man named Ziggy even did it in German: 'Die Nazi-Obst fallt nicht weit vom Stamm,' he sneered. 'The Nazi fruit does not fall far from the tree.'

"Ho hum. More disturbing was a broad streak of racism and bigotry every bit as vicious as the anti-Semitism some of these people claimed to find behind every rock.

"Unsurprisingly, a lot of this filth came from 30-somethings, keyboard warriors whose smartly coiffed heads beamed out from Facebook pages and Linkedin profiles. They showed a slender talent for undergraduate insult, although no evident enthusiasm for actually donning an Israeli army uniform and risking their comfortably upholstered lives to take part in the terrible conflict that has seen so many needless deaths - including, heartbreakingly, those Benjamin Netanyahu so elegantly described the other day as the 'telegenic corpses' of Palestinian children.

"To point out the bleedin' obvious yet again, it is not anti-Semitic to criticise Netanyahu or Israel, any more than it is un-Australian to have a go at Tony Abbott. It is a co-ordinated campaign to smear, to bully, and to browbeat the critics into silence. One bizarre slander doing the internet rounds, put out by an eastern suburbs travel agent, is that 'Carlton's business is bankrolled by the Obeids'. I kid you not.

"Some more civil Jews did try to reason. They showered me with documents, videos, photographs. Their arguments were mostly bog standard Hasbara, the Hebrew word for information, although better thought of as Orwellian Newspeak. This stuff is carefully crafted and widely disseminated so everyone is on message.

"Two lines were repeated over and over again: 'We gave them Gaza; they gave us rockets. Israel takes every care to avoid unnecessary casualties, but Hamas is using children and civilians as human shields.'

"In fact, Israel turned Gaza into the world's largest prison, a sink of misery under siege for the past 7 years. And the human shield has been a Hasbara staple since the 1970s, when Israel's fourth prime minister, Golda Meir, supposedly told Egypt's Anwar Sadat that 'we cannot forgive you for making us kill your children'.

"Happily, the vitriol was far outweighed by hundreds of supportive emails. Fair-minded Australians are disturbed by the murder of children and the widespread carnage. Quite a few were from Muslims, but not one was anti-Semitic. I was grateful for them, and even more for brave and often poignant letters from Jews aghast at the horrors of Gaza." (Clover Moore's worm offers a touch of whimsy in another brutal week)

The above was again accompanied by another wonderful cartoon by Glen Le Lievre, showing a sombre group of Sydneysiders standing outside a TV shop window, their attention riveted by those aforementioned horrors of Gaza, broadcast on a large, flat screen TV inside. A gesticulating Clover Moore, off to one side, can be seen vainly trying to divert them with the city's latest $9m display of outdoor sculpture.

Hang in there, guys!

See also Carlton's 2010 column, A Ferocious Beast, posted on MERC on 12/6/10.

The Carlton/Le Lievre Backlash 3

First it was Israeli lawfare outfit Shurat HaDin's attempt to silence Sydney University Professor Jake Lynch. Now the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) is threatening legal action against the Sydney Morning Herald.

The following details come from the J-Wire site:

"The Executive Council of Australian Jewry... sought an apology from the Sydney Morning Herald for publishing a cartoon portraying 'an ugly stereotype of a Jew'. Executive Director of the ECAJ Peter Wertheim told J-Wire: 'On July 26, the SMH... published a cartoon by Glen Le Lievre portraying a stereotype of a Jew - identified with a hook nose, a kippah (religious head covering) and a Magen David (Star of David) - using a device to blow up people and buildings, presumably in Gaza'."

[For an analysis of Le Lievre's cartoon, see my 29/7/14 post Deconstructing the Carlton/LeLievre Backlash 1. It should be noted here that, in order to make his case, Wertheim has deliberately shorn the cartoonist's image of its context: the old man is clearly one of the now notorious Israeli ghouls seated on a hill overlooking Gaza, enjoying the Zionist festival of slaughter as though on a television screen, and the so-called "device to blow up people and buildings" in his hand is obviously a TV remote. However, nowhere is Wertheim's sleight of hand more apparent than in the words "presumably in Gaza."]

"'The cartoon was accompanied by an appallingly inflammatory and un-factual article by Mike Carlton and a headline accusing Israel of violating international law and basic norms of human behaviour. Our organisation... received a very large volume of complaints about these items... but it was the cartoon which we considered to be antisemitic'."

[It's tempting to see here a deliberate decision by ECAJ to target Le Lievre, Carlton being simply too popular with the Herald readership to pursue safely.] 

Herald editor in chief, Darren Goodsir's July 28 response read in part:

"In my view, it does not, and was not intended to, depict an 'ugly stereotype' or to incite racial hatred. Not only did Mr Le Lievre use an actual image as the source for his cartoon, he adopted the same distinctive style he has developed over the years in which most old people have very pronounced features... He usually draws old people this way."

ECAJ, however, was not to be deterred, coming out on the 29th with - ahem - all guns blazing:

"The figure in the cartoon... is unambiguously identified as a Jew," which "is a device for conveying a message about Jews generally... Whether the cartoonist intended it or not... the cartoon thus attributes to Jews generally a collective blood guilt for the deaths and suffering in Gaza. This is the calumny of Jewish people which your letter simply fails to address. We therefore cannot accept your explanation, nor your failure to publish our letter, or to publicly apologise for what has clearly been a descent into racism in your newspaper. In the circumstances, we feel we have no alternative but to seek redress by legal means. You will be hearing from us or one of our constituent organisations in this regard shortly."

One hopes that Darren Goodsir will stand by Glen Le Lievre and defend the Herald against this kind of hysterical Zionist bullying. Le Lievre's cartoon is an honest and powerful response to an act of Israeli barbarism. Nothing more. Nothing less. It takes enormous chutzpah for ECAJ to pretend otherwise. Watch this space...