SYDNEY, Australia - An Australian newspaper columnist who accused the pro-Israel lobby of being “a ferocious beast” that “lunges from its lair, fangs bared” was cleared of breaching press standards.
A complaint against Mike Carlton, who writes a weekly column in the
Sydney Morning Herald, was dismissed last week by the Australian Press Council after a reader took umbrage at his columns in June following the Gaza flotilla incident.
The complainant, Judy Maynard, accused Carlton’s columns of containing ''anti-Semitic elements” that “bring opprobrium on Jews through the use of racist imagery [and] factually incorrect statements.''
In his June 5 column, Carlton had also described Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as “an unprincipled thug addicted to the use of military force.”
