First of all, here's what we have for you this week:
- Killer Grabs: The Mamdani meltdown and Pauline Hanson gets a boost from the media.
- ‘I was living my values and opposing genocide’: Sacked Carlton mascot breaks silence — By Osman Faruqi
- The Good Ones: A twisty new TV thriller set in a quaint English town, one of Australia's best musicians is back with a brilliant new album, and the only article on the Louvre heist you need to read.
Just over two weeks ago, the Herald Sun published a story on an "anti-Semitism furore" that had gripped the AFL. According to their report, a man performing as the mascot of the Carlton Football Club had "stormed" out of a bar mitzvah in Melbourne, allegedly swearing about Zionists on his way out.
It was condemned as an act of anti-Semitism and led to Carlton declaring the mascot would never work for the club again. As well as the Herald Sun, the story was covered by Sky News, Seven and other media outlets.
But none of those outlets actually spoke to the individual at the centre of the story. If they had, they would have discovered an entirely different version of events, and a story about a young worker who didn't want to give his labour in the interests of fundraising for the Israeli Defence Force.
Today, in a Lamestream exclusive, the Carlton mascot breaks his silence and shares his side of the story, including the real reason he walked out of the event and what he wants people to take away from the whole saga.
Killer Grabs
"A ‘modern-day Princess Diana’: Meet New York’s new first lady" — The Telegraph headline on a story profiling Zohran Mamdani's wife, Rama Duwaji.
Unless Duwaji was forcibly married to an elderly suitor who was secretly having an affair with another woman and then murdered by the Crown because she kept falling in love with handsome Middle Eastern men, I can't see what she has in common with Princess Diana (RIP).
"Sadly, we’re starting to see some suburbs in Australia become virtual no-go zones for women who aren’t dressed in head-to-toe coverings." — Pauline Hanson, speaking at the CPAC conference at Mar-A-Lago this week.
Despite the fact that Hanson's quote was total nonsense, it was reported in virtually every media outlet in the country – no fact-checks, no rebuttal. Just straight up, racist, dog-whistling propaganda for the far-right.
What other party gets this kind of soft treatment from the mainstream media?
‘I was living my values and opposing genocide’: Sacked Carlton mascot breaks silence
By Osman Faruqi
An IDF fundraiser, allegations of anti-Semitism and a person fired from a job they loved. It’s been a familiar tale over the last two years, but it’s maybe never played out with the tribalism that has been unleashed in Melbourne over the story of Captain Carlton.
Two weeks ago, the Carlton Football Club sacked the club’s mascot, the entertainer who performs as Captain Carlton, following a news story in the Herald Sun that accused him of generating an “anti-Semitic furore” by walking out of a bar mitzvah he had been hired to perform at.
According to numerous stories covering the incident, the mascot had been hired to carry out a surprise performance at the event, before he suddenly left the venue upon discovering it was being used to raise money for members of the Israeli Defence Force.
These reports alleged that he exclaimed “I’m not doing this for fucking Zios [Zionists],” before exiting, a statement that was condemned by Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dr Dvir Abramovich, and reported by the Herald Sun as occurring in a context of “growing concerns about the rise of anti-Semitism in Victoria”.
Carlton responded to the news reports swiftly, declaring “he [the performer] will never work at the club again”, a move that has polarised fans and the wider AFL community.
But throughout this uproar, which generated numerous headlines and was breathlessly reported as an example of anti-Semitism in Victoria, no reporters actually spoke to the man at the centre of the story: Captain Carlton.
Now, in an exclusive interview with Lamestream, the man at the centre of the controversy is sharing his side of the story, contesting the widely reported version of events, and seeking to set the record straight.
