Columnist's diatribe against Palin stokes anger in the U.S.
LEE-ANNE GOODMAN
The Canadian Press
September 20, 2008 at 11:32 PM EDT
WASHINGTON — Canadian journalist Heather Mallick is facing an ugly onslaught from the U.S. right-wing media and its fans for an online column she wrote maligning Sarah Palin as “white trash.”
The Sept. 5 column on CBC.ca, entitled “A Mighty Wind Blows Through the Republican Convention,” had already been on the receiving end of vitriol from some Canadian news organizations.
But Fox News picked up on it this week, and unleashed their full fury on Ms. Mallick for stating that Ms. Palin, the Republicans' vice-presidential nominee, appeals to “the white trash vote” with her “toned-down version of the porn actress look.”
Ms. Mallick says those comments pale in comparison to the abuse that's come her way in the wake of the column. She's been called a “pig” by Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren, has been branded an insane Pakistani Muslim by commentators on Fox message boards and has received violent and threatening e-mail, some of which include anti-Semitic slurs – despite the fact that she's neither Jewish nor Muslim.
“I'd love to punch you right in your chops and knock every tooth out of your head. Come see me *****, I have something for you!” someone named Dave Jones wrote in an e-mail to Ms. Mallick.
The Toronto-based columnist admits she's been shaken by the violent imagery contained in hundreds of e-mails similar in tone to Jones', but adds the messages have simply served to underscore her point about the bigotry and small-mindedness of many Republican supporters.
“The responses to my column proved me correct about the extreme right in the United States: they have a great misogynist rage in them,” Ms. Mallick said in an interview from Toronto on Saturday.
“The violent and obscene threats against me were one thing – it's easy to filter those – but the anti-Semitic hate mail was very troubling. I am not Jewish but I am honoured to be taken for one. I consider it a great compliment.”
Ms. Mallick was certainly not alone in attacking Ms. Palin in the days following Mr. McCain's surprise pick of the Alaska governor as his running mate.
Among many others in the mainstream media and in the blogosphere, Salon.com's Cintra Wilson had a column about Ms. Palin that was in the same vein as Ms. Mallick's.
“Ideologically, she is their hardcore pornographic centrefold spread,” Ms. Wilson wrote. “She's such a power-mad, backwater beauty-pageant casualty, it's easy to write her off and make fun of her. But in reality I feel as horrified as a ghetto Jew watching the rise of National Socialism.”
The rage of women about Ms. Palin in the so-called blue states – those that routinely vote Democrat in presidential elections – has, in fact, been well-documented.
“All of my women friends ... were on the verge of throwing themselves out windows,” author and political activist Nancy Kricorian told the New York Sun earlier this week.
“People were flipping out. ... Every woman I know was in high hysteria over this. Everyone was just beside themselves with terror that this woman could be our president – our potential next president.”
But the woman-versus-woman slurs haven't just focused on Ms. Palin. Ms. Van Susteren levelled some Ms. Mallick's way when she repeatedly called her a pig while discussing the controversy with the Ottawa Citizen's David Warren on her Fox News Channel show on Thursday.
“There's no part of me that thinks this woman published this as part of a grand motive to expose others. I think she just wrote it for selfish reasons and because, as I noted, I think she's a pig,” Ms. Van Susteren said.
One lone participant on Ms. Van Susteren's blog, amid the many cheerleaders, took her to task for the remarks.
“It seems particularly ironic that you decry Mallick's lack of tact/professionalism, etc., when she name-calls by doing precisely the same thing: what sort of journalistic integrity is there in calling someone a pig?” wrote someone named Hope.
The media blog Media Bistro also defended Ms. Mallick.
“We kind of think Heather Mallick has some balls to be that snarky in a country that tries to legislate politeness,” it wrote.
Ms. Mallick was unapologetic about the column Saturday, adding the CBC has been supportive of her right to expression.
“Columnists have been opinionating since newspapers were invented,” she said. “And now journalism is online which makes reaction even more hyper than it used to be. I'm a confident writer and some of this new audience is not used to that.”
I'm surprised this wasn't posted by someone earlier. I heard an interview with the author and had to laugh. The response to the column pretty much proved her point.
quote: Originally posted by snoopy369
Somehow I doubt any of these folks are Apolyton readers, with the possible exception of Wiglaf, who's not been around yet today as far as I can tell.
We don't have any Fox News viewers? Aside from King Lancer?
quote: Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
"It's split", says the Fox News reporter when he asks people in a PA fast-food joint who they're voting for, by a hand count.
Well, watch how split it was for yourself:
Best part? All of them laughing in the background.
That's ****ing awesome. It's also typical of Fox News.
From first-hand experience, Philadelphia is Philly, Pittsburgh is Pittsburgh, and every other square inch of the state, east west north and south, is Jesus Land. And many of them in the suburbs make the Amish in Lancaster look Agnostic.
Just remember that if you act like John Kerry and ask for Swiss cheese instead of cheese wiz on your Philly cheese steak sandwich then you are an elitist.
quote: Originally posted by Oerdin
Just remember that if you act like John Kerry and ask for Swiss cheese instead of cheese wiz on your Philly cheese steak sandwich then you are an elitist.
If you eat cheesesteak anywhere but Philly (like Subway), you're elitist.
quote: Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
"It's split", says the Fox News reporter when he asks people in a PA fast-food joint who they're voting for, by a hand count.
Well, watch how split it was for yourself:
Best part? All of them laughing in the background.
quote: Originally posted by Joseph
You should watch the video, he said split, but more votes for Obama than McCain. I saw 3 to 4 hands for McCain and a dozen or more for Obama.
Do you like having your fingers in your ears? Is it fun for you? Is it like your fetish or something?
Only two hands went up. One was a guy whose wife put his hand down, then he raised it for Obama.
