Channel Nine cameraman Simon Fuller is an overnight sensation — for all the wrong reasons — thanks to an ugly slur that exposed the daily clash of TV news crews and inspired a vitriolic campaign on Twitter to have him sacked.

Exposed vilifying a Muslim man on Media Watch last night, the most unpopular TV snapper since Joe has told Crikey from his suspension exile that the incident was “regrettable”.

The footage aired by Media Watch shows Fuller outside court filming Omar Amr, accused of being involved in the recent Oakleigh riot in Melbourne, and his father Gad Amr. While channels Seven and Ten aired footage of the father attacking camera crews, Media Watch broadcast tapes showing the Nine crew harassing the pair, who repeatedly asked to be left alone. In a heated clash, Fuller calls the father a “fucking terrorist”.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4xwhhnaEBQ[/youtube]

As the story was aired last night, Twitter went into overdrive via the “#mediawatch” hashtag. Fuller was chastised for his “absolutely disgraceful behaviour”, declared “unprofessional”, a “massive scumbag”, a “fucking coward” and a “pig”.

Viewers on Twitter felt “sick”, were left “seething” and “infuriated”, and hoped he’d “never work again”. Said one: “Channel 9 must sack him immediately and issue [a] public, grovelling apology.” And: “now I remember why I almost never watch AU commercial TV”. A journalism student questioned their decision to enter the profession; a media worker was “apalled & ashamed [sic]” by his conduct: “No wonder our profession has a bad reputation”.

For Suheil Damouny, an online journalist and TV producer with SBS, it was personal: “As a person of Arab background working in the media — I am reminded why I got into the industry in the first place.”

Fuller was quickly unmasked as @sharpsimon on Twitter — a locked account. One user went so far as to publish his email address and mobile phone number: “If you would like @sharpsimon to direct some racial slurs at you he can be reached on 042388XXXX. Standard call costs apply.”

Fuller’s personal website — where he boasted of being a “highly accredited lighting cameraman”, with skills “honed working in some of the harshest environments in the world” — disappeared last night.

Fuller, suspended from Nine indefinitely, has been bombarded with calls and dozens of emails. “I’ve copped a lot of flak on this from members of the public…a fair bit of abuse, from people who don’t even know me,” he told Crikey.

The veteran cameraman didn’t want to talk about the matter pending Nine’s investigation. But the slur “was regrettable”, he said, and delivered “in the heat of the moment”.

“I cracked, and I said something that I shouldn’t have said,” said Fuller. “I know what I did was wrong. I’m not a racist. I’ve got European heritage; I’m half Italian. I’ve worked in several countries in Europe and around the world.”

Media Watch presenter Jonathan Holmes hit out at those who published Fuller’s contact details — he told Crikey that Fuller’s “invasive” behaviour doesn’t justify the attacks he faced on Twitter. “That’s a bit outrageous,” said Holmes. “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

The veteran ABC correspondent won’t say who provided the footage to the program. But he acknowledged the impact of competition in the cut-throat TV news game, and the demand on journalists and their crews to file provocative stories.

“It will be interesting to see what Nine does,” Holmes said. “Clearly what he said was way out of order. But the other problem of how he was behaving was par for the course.”

Camera operators are schooled to muscle into a fight to get the best footage, according to Holmes. “In a sense they’re trained not to take no for an answer,” he said. “In a kind of a way these guys are not normal people, they’re prepared to be shameless. “I think a lot of this is the way media people are expected to behave. There’s a real culture clash between what journos do in this situation and what the public thinks is acceptable.”

And as Holmes pointed out: “Seven used the footage, not Nine. If it hadn’t been for Seven the issue would not have been widely known.”

Fuller, perhaps most unfortunately, told Gad Amr and his son: “we’re just doing our jobs”. And ultimately, Omar Amr won praise from viewers for his angry response — as Holmes said last night, it’s “edifying stuff”:

“Calling my dad a terrorist! Who the fuck are you to call him a terrorist? Why are you calling him a terrorist? ‘Cos he has a beard and ‘cos he’s Muslim? It’s what it comes down to? Is that what you guys have brung us down to? You can’t even have a beard in this country any more without being called a fucking terrorist! Have some fucking self-decency. The man has never been to court in his life and you’re calling him a terrorist! You’re calling him a terrorist and he’s never been to court in his life. Is that what it’s come down to?”