To: The Manning River Times
Faxed on 29-7-1992
Subject: antisemitism

Dear Sir,

a provincial newspaper has of course the right to publish drivel of any kind, particularly in its Mailbox section (within certain limits), and it would perhaps be unfair to expect its "subeditors", taxed as they are with an unfamiliar language (to wit, English), to discriminate between the 'permissable' (sic, in their own writ) and cases where it might be their 'roll' (sic, in a headline, no less!) to use the DELETE function of their terminals. They may not even know that there exist State and Federal laws that limit the expression of personal opinion, for example where such expression could incite racial hatred...

The editor, however, takes ultimate responsibility for the paper's contents, and this is why I wish to see, in print, his abject apology for allowing a certain Jim Shanks (MRT, July 24-25, p.5) to slander Jewish people in terms reminiscent of those used by the ideological precursors of Nazism in my native Germany!

Meanwhile I am also making a formal complaint about the matter to the relevant agencies.


Yours truly,


NB - A small historical postscript: I consider the incident a sad reflection on the 'progress' of social mores. Some 20 years ago I was offered a job on the paper, or even a senior editorial position at its Maitland head office, but rejected the offer because I couldn't quite cope with the quaint parochial discriminatory attitude then prevailing at the MRT. At the time it was sought to make a grand distinction between the 'us' of the editorial side and the 'them' of the composing room: wearing short socks and shorts in the editorial one day during my getting-to-know-each-other visit, I was told to "wear long socks - you don't want to look like one of them!". Now we're going after "international Jewry", boots 'n all, blaming it/them for all our current social and economic troubles. Sad, isn't it...but then, we've seen it before. The lucky country, however, fortunately has some purpose-built checks and balances in place - just thought I'd better remind you of them...