Herald Sun cartoon turns off customers
A couple of Herald Sun readers contacted me yesterday saying they will no longer purchase the paper following its publication of the cartoon featuring a naked, pixelated but naked, Premier of Victoria, Jacinta Allen.
I’d been on the road all day and was not across the story. I checked out coverage at the ABC, Nine Media and The Guardian.
The readers contacted me because they wanted to speak to someone. I couldn’t;t help them, of course. But I listened to their anger.
Having looked at the cartoon and read reports in other outlets, I like this from The Guardian:
Victoria’s inaugural Public Sector Gender Equality commissioner, Niki Vincent, said she found the cartoon tiresome and suggested it used sexism.
“Often we see women leaders with their bodies focused on, their clothing focused on,” Vincent told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“So this is another example of how to make fun of a woman leader using their body.”
It seems to me that News Corp courts anger, not only in its shrill headlines but also in deliberately provocative cartoon content. It’s moved a long way from being a trustworthy newspaper and a platform of enjoyable content.