#6pr 882

[artofjournalism]

Fairfax radio presenter Howard Sattler has been sacked after asking Prime Minister Julia Gillard if her partner Tim Mathieson is gay.

[artofjournalism]

Australia, let's talk about manners

Is this what we’re going to have to put up with? A political debate that revolves around sniggering at women’s body parts and smirks about gay hairdressers?

People will protest that Sattler wasn’t being sexist, because every time someone is sexist in public people protest that they weren’t being sexist. You could ask these people to reel off the number of times that previous prime ministers were asked if their wives were lesbians: in fact you could ask them to specify those occasions on which previous prime ministers were quizzed on any aspect of their wives’ sex lives at all; but they’d be unlikely to take the point, because they are not very bright.