Drop the L word
The news media have had enough time now to grasp that the issue is not that Trump’s remarks were “lewd.” It’s that they were contemptuous, hostile, dehumanizing, and that they boasted of sexual assault.
More senior Republicans have withdrawn support for US presidential candidate Donald Trump after his obscene remarks about women became public.
“Obscene” is not the issue. Pee po belly bum drawers.
One of the Republican support-withdrawers says it when the BBC couldn’t manage to:
New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte said in a statement: “I cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women,” she said.
There. It doesn’t take many words. It’s not that he said “pussy,” it’s that he said “you [meaning men, or rather himself] can grab their pussy.” It’s that he said you can assault them and get away with it. The obscene word isn’t “pussy,” it’s “grab.”
Yes. The BBC always does this. Drives me crazy.
They probably think that using the “assault” word would not be properly “balanced”. “Assault” might be seen as too judgemental, as if they’re coming down on one or the other. Gotta report that there are those who don’t think it’s an issue, and their view is just as valid.*
The problem with Auntie Beeb is they’ve forgotten how to do journalism. They report “he said, she said”, bring up a few false equivalences and think they’re being balanced. They’re frightened to dig into a story and report on which side the truth might lie, since that would be a sin against “balanced reporting”. I think they just poo their pants every time they consider how the government could take away their charter and funding. So do I — the funding of the BBC should not be capable of being influenced by government — but it’s not a reason to be paralysed into an inability to do your damn job. I still can’t forgive them for not properly reporting on the Leave campaign’s lies.
* sarcasm, BTW. Just in case.
Maybe they think “assault” derives from “ass” and find “battery” too charged a term, and of course they never got to “c” in the “dicktionary” … Oops!