..is two-time world surfing champion Mick Fanning, who has a hard time keeping his antisemitism bottled up inside.
Especially after hitting the bottle.
Two-time world champion surfer Mick Fanning has apologised to the Jewish community for calling someone a ‘f***ing Jew’ after drinking too much at a private function.
Fanning called NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) chief executive Vic Alhadeff this week to personally apologise to the community after the comments were published in off-beat surfing magazine, Stab.
The eight-page article about Fanning featured the headline “Tales of a F***ing Jew” printed inside a Magen David.
Fanning, an ambassador for World Vision, was quoted in Stab after he met one of their journalists at a Rip Curl victory party after his second world surfing championship victory.
“He called me and apologised for what he readily acknowledged was inappropriate language,” Alhadeff said.
Fanning’s mother Elizabeth Osborne told The AJN this week her son has been extremely distressed about the situation.
“After he won the world title Rip Cup had a party at a house on the beach and that started about 3pm,” said Osborne, who also manages her son.
“Six hours later they had obviously been celebrating when the journalist was introduced to Mick, but Mick had always said he didn’t like how Stab magazine wrote off surfing.”
She said it was during the conversation with that journalist that the offending words were uttered.
“He called him a f***ing Jew and he knows it was inappropriate, but he was quite intoxicated and he is really upset and devastated that it happened.”
She said her son only realised he was speaking to a reporter the next day when he saw photos of the party showing the man holding a recording device.
Alhadeff said Fanning knew his words, spoken during what he thought was a private conversation, were wrong and “he has apologised without reservation”.
“But the magazine deliberately exploited and inflamed the situation by repeating Mr Fanning’s slur as a heading on eight pages,” the JBD CEO said.
“The message from this unfortunate saga is that such offensive language is never acceptable, and this has to be made loud and clear.”
In a statement issued last week, Fanning accepted responsibility for his words.
“I consider the article to be offensive and arguably designed to cause hurt and distress,” Fanning said, adding he had considered legal action against the magazine.
He said that before this exchange, he had not spoken with Stab reporters because he considered the magazine’s articles to be “racist and anti-Semitic”.
“I strongly object to views, statements and comments of that nature,” he said. “I acknowledge that my decision to use words that were inappropriate – albeit in an attempt to be ironic, knowing they were of the type favoured by the magazine – was misjudged and wrong.
“I don’t have or condone, any form of racist or, more particularly, anti-Semitic view,” the surfer said.
Fanning’s quotes are not the first time the Jewish community has complained about Stab magazine. Last month, it published part of Sacha Baron Cohen’s satirical song ‘Throw Jews Down The Well” on its website.
The AJN approached the editors of Stab for a reaction but they have not responded.
So let’s get this straight. Mick Fanning drinks a few too many and, in what he thinks is a private conversation, hurls an antisemitic invective against a reporter. After the comments are made public, Fanning’s mother claims sonny was intoxicated, while Fanning himself claims he was being ironic.
Sorry, Mick, I’m not buying it. It’s hard enough being ironic when you’re sober.
My suggestion to Mick is he get in touch with Mel Gibson for a few drinks.
Update: Incidentally, here is a little on World Vision, the “charity” for which Fanning is an ambassador.
Not that I believe Fanning’s association with them is motivated by any anti-Israel sentiment.
Update: Charlie Smith, the object of Fanning’s wrath, responded:
The events of Saturday night, December 12, have taken on an apocryphal glow. I had been invited to Mick Fanning’s celebration at the Rip Curl house by Rip Curl’s international media manager Dane Sharp. I was introduced to surfing journalist Tim Baker. Tim and I talked for some time. He explained to me that he did not enjoy what I did. Said that it was too negative and the point of surfing is a positive communal experience. He also did not like that I had written that Mick Fanning was boring and asked if I had ever met Mick. I answered no. He told me that Mick is a great guy and I should meet him. Mick was standing near and alone. Tim went over and I followed. Mick was angry and called me a f***ing Jew. I was dragged out of the house by security.
I wrote the story. It was published in Stab, the same issue which included a glowing report on Mick’s world title run titled The Secrets of a Champion. The story was not sensationalized. It was not put on the cover. It was not put on the web. It would have been easy to stir up controversy right away but that was not the intent. The intent was to share a true moment that happened on the North Shore. A snapshot.
I don’t know why Mick called me a f***ing Jew but I would have written whatever he called me, or said to me. I did not bait him. I did not catch him off guard, I was not looking to shamelessly destroy an icon. He was not being ironic. It has been said that I should have known that Mick was not happy with me, but I have no idea who is not happy with me. It is not something I think about.
The Australian media picked the story up six weeks after the issue hit the stands and a maelstrom ensued, general perception being that Mick was drunk and ignorant and I was malicious. I was not malicious. I told the story truthfully, including Mick’s language. It was a story because it happened and because it is rare in this surf industry to find anything real. If nobody ever tells a true story what is the point? What is the point?
Frankly, I have a strong and personal attachment to the Jewish community. I have traveled through Israel while studying in the Middle East and witnessed firsthand both the strength and tenacity of the Jewish people. I have been every¬where from Eilat to Kiryat Shmona. I have seen the daily hardships that arise from being a persecuted minority. I was, in fact, in Jerusalem when a suicide bomber detonated himself on an Egged bus, killing all aboard. The senselessness of this act, the sadness, I will carry forever. I did not re-print Mick Fanning’s words to incite and anger, or to heap an unnecessary amount of vitriol on an extremely tender issue. But I could also not ignore what he said.
