In another disturbing sign of how anti-Semitism is being tolerated on the Right, The Australian‘s farewell to its former cartoonist Larry Pickering entirely ignored his hatred of Jews.
Pickering, a ’70s-era cartoonist, was also a conman, bankrupt, serial scammer and profoundly bigoted, with a passionate hatred of women, Muslims, LGBTIQ people — whose murder by Islamic State terrorists he claimed to support — and Jews. His “cartoons” of Julia Gillard were misogynist garbage; even The Australian, which ran its own sexist campaign against Gillard, today described them as “extreme in their vulgarity and sexual coarseness”. The publication’s managing editor Helen Trinca went further, tweeting “he can’t be forgiven his horrible portrayal of women”, even though for many years the paper retained a gallery of Pickering’s work on its website.
But while his homophobia, Islamophobia and misogyny got a mention in a piece absurdly called “Cartoonist Larry Pickering blurred the line” — as though his hate speech was an occasional straying into bad taste — his anti-Semitism was curiously missing. Pickering’s views on Jews and the Holocaust were disgusting.
“The vanity-driven, thieving Jews,” he called them in a 2012 blog post that he removed after bad publicity at the height of the smear campaign against Gillard. “The bleating Jews who actually believe they are God’s people are still combing the world looking for war-crime culprits,” he wrote, before claiming the Holocaust was “one of the many episodes of war and far from the worst in terms of human life”.
That post may have been pulled down, but his blog was a cesspit of anti-Semitism and the usual Jewish conspiracy theories from Pickering himself and his extreme-right followers. Strange that the country’s preeminent right-wing outlet chose not to mention it.
Good riddance to a man who could at best be considered a pox on our society.
That he was so well loved by right wingers tells you all you need to know about them too.
Not strange at all.
The Australian newspaper is a rag
Bernie, will all due respect, take a chill-pill. It really does seem to me that your calling is
either politics or Holy Orders on account of your disposition to instruct others how to think and
act. There are any number of Larrys (here and elsewhere) about and not all of them are white and
in their 70s.
As to “hatreds” well – why don’t we start with the various announcements by the Royal Family (over
time (recent mushy Royal tours notwithstanding) and work downwards to the Pickerings (and
countless others) – and not a few proprietors of newspapers).
Permit me to offer the un-introduced to a sample of Mr Pickering’s “journalism” (from his current
blog/web page.
———————————————
Dear Mr Morrison,
Can you please help to get my Dad out of jail again. He keeps getting into trouble with
the mozzie man who moved in next door. .. etc ..
(and yes : the spelling ought to be ‘gaol’)
———————————————–
Banging on about something or other (it may have been [gentle]men of empire) he made mention
of T.E. Lawrence coming off his bike at 90 mph. The slightest research would have revealed that
having just left the post office and endeavoring to avoid two 10 year old boys playing on the road
(whom the local constable had warned several times – along with their parents) the bike
was still in 2nd gear.
Other copious examples, particularly concerning climate change exist. But lets not get what is
left of our hair in a knot. Such people come and, eventually, go.
As to a number of his obsessions, I’ll warrant that not a few One Nation supports found something
comfortable embedded in the various articles. However, no one bought a writ against him (he
obviously had some evidence) and I’ll bet that the contents of the base draw of his desk makes for
interesting reading – and will unnerve more than a few of the hoi-poli – with another party holding the key.
As to “impartiality” his posts list any number of examples where the ABC (and other networks) interviewed him yet did not broadcast the interview – presumably because the interview did not go as intended.
As Sir Joshua informed his Lordship on numerous occasions “we are assembled only to hear the evidence” with the implication that the evidence may have little association with the truth.
WTF! Only you could come up with an overblown non sequitor of a response like this. Pickering was a very bitter, nasty piece of work with no redeeming qualities whatsoever and won’t be missed by anyone but the bigoted hard right!
Died did he? I couldn’t have happened sooner. Ran I believe as a Liberal Party candidate in the 1974 Billy Snedden election.
“Gorn” but not forgotten by his good mates who just loved the stuff he did about Julia Gillard. A real card.
Pickering was a chancre on Rupert’s glutes.