Fairfax paper cleared of anti-Semitism
THE Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint against broadcaster and columnist Mike Carlton in which he was accused of using anti-Semitic language.
THE Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint against broadcaster and columnist Mike Carlton in which he was accused of using anti-Semitic language.
In a column in The Sydney Morning Herald on June 12, Carlton responded to angry emails refuting his analysis of the flotilla incident by saying, “It is a ferocious beast, the Jewish lobby. Write just one sentence even mildly critical of Israel and it lunges from its lair, fangs bared.”
Later in the column, he wrote, “The Israel lobby, worldwide, is orchestrated in Jerusalem by a department in the Prime Minister’s Office”.
A week later Carlton continued, “With bottomless irony, the Jewish lobby spent much of last week assuring anybody who would listen that there is no such thing as the Jewish lobby.”
But the Australian Press Council ruled that the column “did not breach its principle that material should avoid placing gratuitous emphasis on a particular ethnicity, religion or nationality.”
Sydney resident Judy Maynard, who filed the complaint, said it was the language Carlton used, not a “gratuitous emphasis” on religion, that was the basis for her claim.
“My complaint was based on the use of “racist imagery … and the resorting to anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jewish behaviour,” she said. “It does concern me … that the Press Council has demonstrated its limitations as an adjudicator in matters alleging racism, by its inability to identify classic anti-Semitic stereotyping.”
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff said there was “the letter of the law and the spirit of the law” and the Press Council’s decision was “extremely disappointing”.
Press Council executive secretary Jack Herman defended the decision, saying while Carlton’s commentary “certainly was colourful”, it did not go beyond the “legitimate bounds of comment”.
Herman said the council had discussed at length Carlton’s assertion that the pro-Israel lobby was orchestrated from one place. “There are and have been far worse examples of attempts to portray some sort of Jewish conspiracy than Carlton has,” he said.
“[Carlton’s piece] talks about a particular department within the Israeli Government that does issue guidance for people as to how to respond to particular issues that confront Jews in the Diaspora.
“The council made a distinction between conspiracy and coordination.”
GARETH NARUNSKY
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