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Today Show’s Karl Stefanovic calls for boycott of Daily Mail

The Today Show’s Karl Stefanovic has slammed The Daily Mail for judging, criticising and mocking Australian women and implying men and women can’t work together without something untoward happening.

The publication however has doubled down and said Stefanovic’s on-air “meltdown” marks the end of a “controversial week” for the star.

The original article, which was posted by the tabloid website last night, showed Stefanovic in late April, with a 12-pack of pre-mixed rum, checking in to a country NSW caravan park while accompanied by a female colleague.

Stefanovic hit out this morning, telling The Daily Mail, not to “slur the reputations of others” in their “eagerness to throw mud” at him.

“It’s a news website, one which seeks to profit from criticising publicly humiliating people – women especially,” Stefanovic said.

He added the news website, which placed fifth on Nielsen’s latest Digital News rankings, specialised in “shaming women” and had a “despicable track record of denigrating women for who they are”.

Stefanovic went on to explain his version of events, telling the audience the rum was for prawn farmers and the woman behind the scrutiny was a TV producer, Lauren Tomasi.

“Go hard on me. Make up your stories, publish your lies, send out the paps. But if you have a sliver of decency for the women in Australia, do not slur the reputations of others in your eagerness to throw mud at me,” he said.

“If you agree with me the best thing you can do, is to never go to that website,” he concluded.

Tomasi took to Twitter this morning to show her support for Stefanovic’s comments, and Tweeted the story the duo had shot in Yamba.

The Daily Mail Australia declined to officially comment to Mumbrella on Stefanovic’s on-air criticisms, but has since published two follow-up articles, accusing the Today host of misinterpreting the original post and lambasting other news websites for incorrectly reporting the story.

In an article titled ‘Karl gets ready to Rum-ble! Today show host Karl Stefanovic melts down over pictures of himself checking into a caravan park with 12 cans of Bundy rum – as viewers accuse him of ‘double standards”, The Daily Mail Australia said in Stefanovic’s “bizarre tirade” he “insisted he and his colleague were there for work, despite nobody having suggested otherwise”.

Another article criticised publications including The Sydney Morning Herald for “incorrectly reporting that the story which accompanied the images suggested the 42-year-old was engaged in ‘inappropriate conduct’ with a female colleague who accompanied him on his late April trip to Yamba”.

One year ago, The Daily Mail Australia ended its partnership with Nine after two years, with frustrations about how Nine was selling the product understood to be one of the key reasons for the split.

In the UK, an initiative known as ‘Stop Funding Hate’ is campaigning to stop companies from advertising in certain UK newspapers, with The Daily Mail among them.

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