Sam Newman’s latest shocking podcast has aired baseless claims that Port Arthur mass murderer Martin Bryant was innocent and was set up by the government.
It comes just months after Newman was widely criticised for hosting neo-Nazis Thomas Sewell and Blair Cottrell on his You Cannot Be Serious podcast.
In his latest episode, Newman allowed a conspiracy theorist to defend Bryant and preach his wild beliefs for almost 40 minutes, without offering any substantial proof.
The massacre was a mass shooting that happened on April 28, 1996 at Port Arthur, a former convict settlement and now tourist site 90km south of Hobart in Tasmania.
Bryant, who was intellectually disabled, killed 35 people and wounded 23 others, including Nanette Mikac and her daughters Alannah Mikac, 6, and Madeline, 3.
Newman began the podcast by declaring ‘these kind of chats are fraught with danger’ before admitting he ‘loved to do it’ because it was ‘food for thought’ and of interest to his listeners.
He gave actor and ‘film armourer’ Paul Moder free rein to rewrite history and claim the mass shooting was arranged to precipitate a de-arming of ns, as strict new gun laws were passed in the aftermath.
Moder was promoting his new movie which he said aims to ‘retell’ his version of the massacre, and told Newman he had ‘dug very deeply’ into the tragic events.
‘I came to the conclusion Port Arthur stinks to high heaven,’ he said.
‘The mainstream story is not the full story. There is definitely a cover-up and there are a lot of unresolved questions.’
The former nightclub owner told Newman his theories on the shooting were based on both the change in gun laws, and the fact there was no coronial inquest into the incident.
Among Moder’s wildest claims was that Bryant was present at the scene but never committed the massacre and was set up as the fall guy.
Bryant’s rampage began at the Seascape Cottage, a guest house close to his home by the water on the Tasman Peninsula.
In his car Bryant, then aged 28, had packed two semi-automatic rifles, a 12-gauge shotgun, hundreds of ammunition rounds, handcuffs, rope, a hunting knife and tins of petrol.
Shortly after he arrived at the guest house, he murdered Seascape’s owners, David and Sally Martin.
He then went to the nearby Port Arthur penal colony tourist site and shot dead 24 visitors and staff around the Broad Arrow Cafe. He shot dead another eight people on the way back to Seascape Cottage where he shot dead a hostage he had taken.
‘He’s the Perfect Patsy,’ Moder insisted. ‘And my opinion is that he was helped and or set up by some very shady individuals.
‘By his own admission, he was at Seascape Cottage where he was arrested, but that he didn’t do the Port Arthur shooting.’
Moder claimed Bryant was ‘tricked’ into taking part in a secret military exercise linked to the CIA’s Project MK Ultra mind control program, which dates back to the 1950s.
‘The basic premise is that Martin Bryant was the perfect kind of Patsy, and that he was set up to take part in a false counter-intelligence exercise, if you like,’ he said.
‘So the theory is he was tricked into taking part in an exercise, going to Seascape Cottage, and told, “Look, you will read from this script, and you will shoot out the windows and keep people at bay”.
‘And that while he was there, he was incapacitated or drugged, and that they sent a professional person in impersonating him in his Volvo with his guns, who then carried out a very successful assault at the tourist penal colony.’
Newman acknowledged Moder’s views ‘might’ be unpalatable and insensitive, but repeatedly justified airing the bizarre claims to his listeners.
‘I thought it was worth having a chat to him about it because I’ve not heard this before and if I’m interested in what he has to say I reckon the people who listen to this (are),’ Newman said.
While Daily Mail has chosen not to report much of Moder’s rant, it can be revealed he used the platform to attack grieving dad Walter Mikac – who lost his wife the daughters in the tragedy – after being prompted by Newman.
‘I understand he’s taken on board the mantle, the mantle of preventing violence in n society, particularly by banning firearms, so I can certainly understand that loss,’ Moder told Newman.
Daily Mail has contacted Mr Mikac via the Alannah & Madeline Foundation – the charity named in honour of his slain daughters – for comment.
Moder believes the ‘Bryant conspiracy’ was intended to bring in gun control as part of former Prime Minister John Howard’s ‘lust for power’.
‘I’ve always said that gun control alone is a motivation for a government involvement … the oldest motivators in the book, going back through centuries,’ Moder said.
‘You only have to study history, power, money, influence and control. There were always people that benefit from major traumatic events and power.’
Newman said he was prepared for a public backlash over his decision to air Moder’s interview.
‘We’ll probably take another belting for speaking to somebody about speaking about something that is … well, we take a belting from everyone who we speak to,’ he said.
In February, Newman was lambasted by chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission Dr Dvir Abramovich over his interview of two Neo-Nazis.
During the 55-minute episode, the trio discussed topics relating to the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler and an Day march.
‘Let’s call this what it is – an absolute moral collapse,’ Dr Abramovich said then.
‘Sam Newman has now plunged into the depths of disgrace, rolling out the red carpet for ’s most vile, unapologetic white supremacists.
‘These are not misunderstood figures. These are the faces of hatred, and Sam Newman has just handed them legitimacy on a silver platter.
‘This is not just ‘controversial’ or about free speech. It’s a betrayal of every n value.
‘By giving these hardcore bigots and antisemitism a platform, Newman has spat in the face of Holocaust survivors, trampled on the legacy of the courageous diggers who died to defeat Hitler, and insulted every n who has fought against bigotry.’
Newman later claimed Cottrell ambushed his podcast and that he never invited the extremist to be on the show, although he did interview him for almost an hour.
Former Footy Show host and AFL great Newman said he was angered that Cottrell had promoted the interview on X and tried to make it look like an endorsement of his views.
‘That turd tried to link me to the cause. I tell you what, you are a piece of crud and you are just deliberately being mischievous,’ Newman said.
‘It was Cottrell’s post on X that started the ball rolling.’
Newman labelled Cottrell a ’24-carat scumbag’ and denied any involvement, affiliation or endorsement of neo-Nazis.