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Australian editor-in-chief calls on colleagues to support cartoonist accused of racism

<span>Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters</span>
Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

The editor-in-chief of the Australian, Chris Dore, has called on his staff to rally around the cartoonist Johannes Leak whose drawing of Joe Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, has been denounced as racist.

The Labor MPs Andrew Leigh, Mark Dreyfus and Andrew Giles, the former prime minister Kevin Rudd and many journalists were among a chorus of voices who said on Friday the cartoon was offensive and racist for describing the Democrat senator as a “little brown girl”.

Dore assured staff at the Murdoch broadsheet the intention of the cartoon was to ridicule US presidential candidate Biden’s “identity politics” but it had been misconstrued by rival media outlets.

“I would also like to point out that when one of our own, who we dearly love and value, faces such vile, personal and unwarranted attacks, as Johannes Leak has today, it’s important that we rally around him and show him support,” Dore wrote.

“It should go without saying, but certainly needs to be clearly enunciated, that each of us at The Australian utterly opposes racism in all its guises.”

Dore’s missive, which was at pains to explain the context behind the cartoon, was later forwarded by News Corp’s corporate affairs executive, Campbell Reid, to all staff across Murdoch’s Australian newspapers.

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“As many of you will be aware today’s editorial cartoon in The Australian has provoked strong reactions and criticism,” Reid said.

“I wanted to share with you the note (below) that The Australian’s editor-in-chief Christopher Dore has sent to his staff tonight which will help you understand the real point the cartoon was making.”

The emails are an unusual response for Murdoch executives who don’t usually feel the need to explain themselves – but the backlash had been severe.

Dore also moved to assure readers the cartoon was not racist in a note from the editor-in-chief posted online.

“As you will know, Johannes Leak’s cartoon published in the paper today has created an intense negative reaction, including outrageous accusations the cartoon was inspired by racism or is intended to promote racism,” Dore told staff in his email.

“I know many of you will be confronted by these criticisms over the next few days, so I want to help you understand the context.

“The words ‘little black and brown girls’ belong to Joe Biden, not Johannes, and were uttered by the presidential candidate when he named Kamala Harris as his running mate yesterday; he repeated them in a tweet soon after.

“As many commentators in the US have noted, Biden is accused of using racial identity as a political weapon, and that is exactly the point Johannes was making in the cartoon, using Biden’s language. The intention of Johannes’s commentary was to ridicule identity politics and demean racism, not perpetuate it.”

However, Biden was referring to children who might be inspired by Harris’s candidacy, not to Harris herself who is 55.

Dore said “context is everything” and while readers of the Australian were well informed “not everyone will be across every piece of source material or relevant background”.

“We certainly have to be aware of our content being misconstrued, sometimes unintentionally, often wilfully, based on readers not having the full context readily before them. It’s worth remembering cartoons are meant to be provocative and confronting,” he wrote.

“We are not immune from criticism, nor should we be, that is our business, but it is important to note that much of the momentum creating fury around these issues, as we saw in January over the bushfires, is deliberately driven by rivals in the media.

“That’s not an excuse, it just means we have to be alive to the likely backlash when we venture into contentious areas, as we do every day.”

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The emails were leaked to Guardian Australia by staff who agreed the cartoon was racist.

The Australian’s investigative reporter, Hedley Thomas, replied to Dore, saying attacks on the paper and its staff from “cowardly bullies” were disgusting and Twitter was a “toxic cesspit”.

“Twitter generally distorts the craft of journalism, encourages narcissism and ugly vendetta and sucks your time and energy into worthless tit for tat with unreasonable people,” the Walkley award-winning reporter said.

Australia’s former race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane on Friday tweeted: “In the past I’ve described this newspaper as a poor man’s Breitbart. It indulges racism, and uses it as part of its business model. This sort of commentary diminishes our society.”