Triple J under fire for chilling interview with a neo-Nazi
Triple J has come under fire after interviewing a neo-Nazi who helped organise the Charlottesville rally – and defended the man accused of plowing his car into a crowd of counter-protesters and killing a woman.
Critics took to Twitter after host Tom Tilley interviewed Eli Mosley, who took part in the 'Unite the Right' rally in the United States over the weekend, on Monday's episode of Hack.
Mosley – who has described himself as a 'command soldier major of the 'alt-right'' – often features on anti-Semitic podcast The Daily Shoah and has spoken about how to tries to recruit Donald Trump supporters at the President's rallies.
While Hack is known for allowing its guests to express their opinions, Tilley has been slammed for not challenging Mosley when he claimed the man charged with ramming his car into a crowd, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer, was provoked and acting in self-defence.
Scroll down for video
Tom Tilley (left) interviewed Eli Mosley (right), who took part in the 'Unite the Right' rally
Critics slammed Tom Tilley for giving a platform to a neo-Nazi who helped organise the deadly rally in Charlottesville
'Triple J is giving white supremacists and terrorists a platform to spew their hatred. They are complicit n there's really no defending this,' wrote Kish Lal on Twitter.
'Another day another white guy encouraging senseless hatred @TomTilley @triplej,' one Twitter user said.
Another user joked: 'Hi I'm Tom Tilley and stay tuned to hear from literal nazis you're listening to triple jjjjjjjjjj'
Tilley introduced had Mosley simply as someone who is 'relatively known in alt-right circles in the US' and 'one of the organisers of the Unite the Right protest.'
While Hack is known for allowing its guests to express their opinions, Tilley has been slammed for not challenging Mosley
Mosley was able to insist the rally was not intended to incite violence – despite numerous white nationalists arriving armed – with few challenges from Tilley.
He said it was police and government incompetence that led the white nationalists to become violence.
'I think it's unfortunate that there was any violence,' he said.
'We all came there to have a peaceful demonstration that was given to us by our permit and our First Amendment right and due to the police and government's incompetence and negligence, essentially what had happened was we were forced into violence.'
Tilley does point out that many of the white nationalists at the rally were armed with rifles, dressed in army fatigues and carrying fire-lit torches and shields.
But he then allows Mosley to suggest that white supremacist James Fields Jr. was acting in self-defence without any follow-up at all.
Mosley – who has described himself as a 'command soldier major of the 'alt-right'' – claimed the white nationalist charged with slamming his car into a crowd was provoked
Fields, 20, allegedly slammed his car into a crowd of people protesting the white nationalist rally, killing Ms Heyer and injuring at least 19 more.
He was arrested shortly afterwards and has been in custody since.
'This kid is 18 or 20 years old, and he had a baseball bat was what it looked like in the video smashing the back of his car right before he speeds off,' he says.
Fields is facing a second-degree murder and other charges in the death of Heyer and has been in custody since his arrest
Mosley then slams 'Antifa' and Black Lives Matter protesters for attacking the car and denies being a Nazi sympathiser.
A makeshift memorial of flowers and a photo of Heather Heyer, who died when a car rammed into a group of people who were protesting the white supremacist rally
'He was in the crowd with all the Anti, Black Lives Matter people and we've seen his car attacked,' he claims.
'Anyone who's pro-white in this country, or any country that's historically white has been labelled KKK and Nazi no matter what we do, so I reject this label entirely.'
However, the Virginia rally – ostensibly to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a city park - did attract white nationalists, including neo-Nazis, skinheads and Ku Klux Klan members. Hundreds of other people came out to protest against them.
Following the exchange with Mosley, Tilley spoke to a man identified only as Herschel from Brisbane – purportedly a Jewish man with opposing views to Mosley's.
However, many on Twitter were quick to point out that 'Herschel' appeared to be a troll and was echoing neo-Nazi views, such as the idea that multiculturalism 'is the end of white people.'