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Mike Carlton resigns from Fairfax Media after intense pressure from anti-semitic backlash

FAIRFAX columnist Mike Carlton remains unrepentant over his resignation, believing editors were terrified by anti-Semitic backlash.

Matt YoungMatt Young
@MattYoung
3 min read
August 6, 2014 - 7:46AM
Fairfax columnist Mike Carlton has resigned.
Fairfax columnist Mike Carlton has resigned.

FORMER Fairfax columnist Mike Carlton has responded to his resignation on independent media website Crikey, claiming he’s received endless abuse from offended readers after he wrote a column criticising Israel’s actions in Gaza.

In the latest controversy, Carlton was caught out sending abusive responses and tweets to readers who questioned his position on the conflict, calling one critic a “Jewish bigot” and telling several others to “f**k off”.

“I’ve been called a bag of Nazi slime, a Jew-hating racist … endlessly,” he told Crikey this morning.

“Much of it has been obscene. I suppose, half-a-dozen times, I hit back and told people to get f***ed”.

Carlton posted this response earlier today.
Carlton posted this response earlier today.

Carlton said the decision to suspend him came from Fairfax business and metro publisher Sean Aylmer, who overruled Sydney Morning Herald editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir.

Goodsir wanted to suspend Carlton for four to six weeks after the abusive reports surfaced in The Australian.

“They said they want to suspend me for four to six weeks to “consider”... but I said “don’t bother I’m resigning. I hung up on them,” Carlton told the Daily Mail Australia.

“I had overwhelming support from Herald readers, people saying “good on you”... but I think at the top of the Fairfax tree they were terrified.”

An example of “abusive” responses from Mike Carlton.
An example of “abusive” responses from Mike Carlton.

BELOW: MIKE CARLTON’S HISTORY OF ABUSE

IN FULL: CARLTON’S CONTROVERSIAL SMH COLUMN

IN FULL: MIKE CARLTON’S RESPONSE TO BACKLASH

One of these emails surfaced on Andrew Bolt’s blog on Monday, and in today’s edition of The Australian, several of Carlton’s abusive responses to readers are published.

This morning, Aylmer went on Fairfax-owned radio station 2UE and told hosts Garry Linnell and John Stanley that Carlton and Fairfax had “parted ways”.

“Many readers wrote to Mike but what got him into trouble is the way [Carlton] responded to those readers, and it was totally inappropriate and using inappropriate language,” Aylmer said. “It’s important to stress it’s not the [original] article itself but the way he treated readers.

Carlton remains unrepentant this morning after intense pressure to apologise, tweeting of his disappointment that a “once great newspaper buckled to the bullies”.

His former colleague, cartoonist Glen Le Lievre tweeted his support this morning.

According to Mr Alymer, representatives from Fairfax Media called Mr Carlton last night to enter into discussions to fix the issue.

“We said we’d suspend him and he’s resigned on the spot,” Mr Alymer said.

“He was apologetic. He accepted he had gone too far. As more emails emerge we kind of figured we needed to suspend him. We need to put the readers first.

“It wasn’t one or two emails, It was several emails. You just can’t do that.”

Last night, The Sydney Morning Herald’s editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir apologised to readers and called Carlton’s behaviour “completely unacceptable”.

“I have asked Mike to apologise for these actions. Mike regrets his behaviour and will be contacting affected readers to apologise,” he wrote.

According to The Australian, Mr Goodsir wrote to one disgruntled reader: “Your points are valid, and well made — and, while I am not sacking him as you have urged, please rest assured that I have admonished him in the strongest terms”.

Carlton’s column on the conflict in Gaza on July 26 had many readers up in arms and this week Fairfax apologised for running a cartoon, which it said in hindsight was racist, that accompanied it.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president Yair Miller told The Australian, “This is not the first time Mr Carlton has resorted to abusive responses to members of the Jewish community over many years and we are glad the SMH editors are now aware of this”.

The Sydney Morning Herald is reportedly working in overdrive to save its plummeting subscriptions, with readers appalled at the Herald’s coverage of the Israeli/Gaza conflict.

“Israel has never offered the Palestinians a just and equitable peace,” Carlton wrote in his column.

“There will be the customary torrent of abusive emails calling me a Nazi, an anti-Semite, a Holocaust denier, an ignoramus.

“As usual they will demand my resignation, my sacking. As it’s been before, some of this will be pornographic or threatening violence.”

Allie Pollak wrote a considered response to Fairfax columnist Mike Carlton and was rudely rebuffed. Picture: Britta Campion
Allie Pollak wrote a considered response to Fairfax columnist Mike Carlton and was rudely rebuffed. Picture: Britta Campion

Carlton has a long history of abusive interactions with readers.

It’s the second time he’s been dismissed by Fairfax, after refusing to write a column during a strike by Fairfax journalists in 2008.

Ouch.
Ouch.
There he goes again.
There he goes again.
... and again.
... and again.

- youngma@news.com.au

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/national/mike-carlton-resigns-from-fairfax-media-after-intense-pressure-from-antisemitic-backlash/news-story/f77120cd8e6283a7fd438157a0866ff4