Matty Johns says sorry on air
Rugby League TV identity Matty John took the opportunity on Fox to apologise for the Hitler gaffe made on his Fox Sports show earlier this week.
The production used a Fox promotion to charge $22 to viewers to submit photographs to be used on cardboard cutouts replicating the fans at a no-spectators match last weekend.
Instead of the images sent by fans the show used their own for a comedic effect. A photograph of Adolf Hitler was used among others.
These images were used for the show only and not for the game itself.
Matty Johns and Fox Sports lost no time in apologising for the gaffe.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff commented: “The Board of Deputies deals with multiple antisemitic incidents every year, emanating from a range of sectors – schools, universities, NGOs, media, faith communities. While we endeavour to turn such incidents into constructive learning opportunities, we frequently encounter pushback. The Matty Johns incident was not that. The incident was insensitive, hurtful, offensive; but he apologised – immediately, personally, sincerely.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff told J-Wire:”Full credit to Matty for how he handled the issue. He demonstrated courage and decency for immediately owning and acknowledging that it was a poor error of judgment and shouldn’t have happened. I commend him for responding in the way he did.”
The CEO of the Sydney Jewish Museum Norman Seligman said: “Displaying the cutout of Hitler was not only distasteful, but totally inappropriate and insensitive to the Jewish community and particularly to the survivors of the Holocaust and their descendants.
I therefore invited Matty Johns to visit the Sydney Jewish Museum, including meeting with a Holocaust survivor, and I am very pleased that he immediately accepted my invitation.
The Museum is presently closed due to Covid 19, but we will arrange the visit as soon as we can safely do so for all concerned.”
