Gordon Campbell: On The Mock Horror Over Political Profanity

Heavens to Betsy. Let me get this right. In her own opinion column, a female journalist (the fearsome Andrea Vance) used a bad word to refer to female politicians who had just extinguished the ability of about 150,000 women to get fair pay for the work they do. The nation reeled, and expressed its outrage – mainly at the journalist for using that bad word. Without a trace of irony, Brooke Van Velden, the ACT politician who is leading the government’s attack on the principles and practices of pay equity, is leading the criticism of Vance’s use of the C-word.