Fox News takes on Toronto columnist

Toronto columnist Heather Mallick became embroiled in yet another controversy, when Fox News jumped on one of her recent columns, “A Mighty Wind blows through Republican convention,” about Alaska Governor and U.S. Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Mallick’s column criticizes Palin’s parenting skills, her convention speech and her voice, which she jokes “could peel the plastic seal off your new microwave.” Mallick wrote that Palin appeals to “the white trash vote” and that she has a “toned-down version of the porn actress look.” She questions John McCain’s choice of running mate, and calls absurd the idea that women will vote for Palin simply because she is a woman. Mallick writes:

“It’s possible that Republican men, sexual inadequates that they are,
really believe that women will vote for a woman just because she’s a
woman. They’re unfamiliar with our true natures. Do they think vaginas
call out to each other in the jungle night? I mean, I know men have
their secret meetings at which they pledge to do manly things, like
being irresponsible with their semen and postponing household repairs
with glue and used matches. Guys will be guys, obviously. But do they not know that women have been trained to resent other
women and that they only learn to suppress this by constantly berating
themselves and reading columns like this one? I’m a feminist who
understands that women can nurse terrible and delicate woman hatred.”

Fox responded by calling Mallick a “pig” and the network’s Greta Van Susteran said that the column went “beyond vicious.” Mallick told the Canadian Press she has received threats since the airing of the Fox program. “The responses to my column proved me correct about the extreme right
in the United States: they have a great misogynist rage in them,”
Mallick is quoted by CP.

The CBC has said it has no intention of pulling the column as Mallick is an opinion columnist who was simply doing her job by expressing her opinion.