Mike Carlton quits Fairfax after Sydney Morning Herald rocket over ‘inappropriate and unacceptable’ comments to readers

FRESH from quitting the Sydney Morning Herald after a strong rebuke from its editor-in chief over ‘unacceptable’ behaviour, Mike Carlton has lived up to his caustic persona with an extraordinary spray on Twitter.

FRESH from quitting the Sydney Morning Herald after a strong rebuke from its editor-in chief over “unacceptable” and “inappropriate” behaviour, Mike Carlton has lived up to his caustic persona with an extraordinary spray on Twitter.

‘After a fortnight of being called Nazi, Jew-hating slime, I told a few people to f** off,” the long-serving columnist tweeted this morning.

Carlton quit after mounting pressure following SMH editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir’s discovery that the acerbic columnist had been using offensive language during correspondence with the paper’s readers and letter writers over his anti-semitic views on the conflict in Gaza.

Mike Carlton returns to Twitter this morning without missing a beat.

The controversial columnist was last night asked to apologise. As more abusive emails to readers emerged he was to be suspended but resigned on the spot.

Gone...Carlton quit after being asked to apologise following a string of abusive emails to readers

Fairfax Media publisher Sean Aylmer defended Carlton’s column which sparked the controversy but said it was his response to readers which had brought about the action.

“It’s really important to stress it’s not the article itself that was the issue, it was the way he treated the readers,” Aylmer told 2UE today.

“Darren Goodsir said ‘you need to apologise’. As more of these emails emerged we spoke to him last night. He was going to be suspended but he resigned on the spot.”

“As more emails emerged we figured we needed to suspend him. We want to put the reader first.

“No one has the right to treat people that way. From there he resigned.”

CANDID TWITTER POST: FAIRFAX HASN’T PAID ME!

GALLERY — MIKE CARLTON’S ZANY WORLD

It’s not the first time Carlton has fallen foul of senior editors at Fairfax Media.

Carlton was sacked from the Herald in 2008 by then boss Phil McLean after 13 years with the paper when he refused to file his column in support of striking journalists and photographers.

Yesterday, a public backlash forced the paper to publicly apologise for publishing a vile anti-Jewish cartoon that accompanied an almost equally shameful column by Mike Carlton.

“A strong view was expressed that the cartoon, by Glen Le Lievre, closely resembled illustrations that had circulated in Nazi Germany,” the apology read.

“It was wrong to publish the cartoon in its original form. We apologise unreservedly for this lapse.”

The abuse and condemnation became so bad Carlton tweeted that he was forced to shut down his Gmail account.

“Pleased really. Ends the torrent of foul abuse from Likudniks.”

He said his email account was getting a denial of service from three separate international IPs.

Then a further 38 minutes later, it all got too much for Carlton, who decided to close-down his Twitter account, saying: “I’m getting off Twitter tonight. Do feel free to have your say though.

And we shall see what the turds at News Corpse do on the morrow.”