Columnist Mallick's Palin commentary provokes rage and threats

CBC.ca and occasional magazine columnist Heather Mallick seems to have touched a particularly tender nerve with a recent commentary about U.S. vice-presidental candidate Sarah Palin. In her article, she said Palin appeals to "the white trash vote" with her "toned-down version of the porn actress look."

The column (from a woman who has been renowned for her strong opinions) had already been receiving a lot of outraged comments on the CBC website, but an attack from Fox News commentator Greta van Susteren, calling her a "pig" on air, has resulted in a ramping up of vitriol and threats of bodily harm. These come from U.S. commenters who probably had never before heard of her...or of the CBC. The column has received almost 1,500 comments so far.

Mallick told Canadian Press she was shaken by the aggression of some of the responses.

"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 said in an interview from Toronto on Saturday.

CP said Mallick "has been branded an insane Pakistani Muslim by commentators on Fox message boards and has received violent and threatening email, 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 bitch, I have something for you!" someone named Dave Jones wrote in an email to Mallick....

Messages left on the Fox News website also contain a lot of anti-Canadian sentiment.

"Canada is made up of small towns and many if not most trace their ancestry back to their 'redneck cousin' and they still have relatives here in the U.S.," one wrote.

Wrote another, "Those morons up north just can't keep their ignorant mouths shut when it's really none of their socialist business ... the People's Republic of Canada is no friend of the USA!"