The unfortunate truth of working in the public eye means you’re going to cop a bit of abuse for the simple crime of doing your damn job. The even more unfortunate truth of being a woman in the public eye means a lot of it is going to be gendered as hell.
And interviewing powerhouse + national interview Leigh Sales has copped far, far more than her fair share of abuse this election cycle, with utterly incensed voters claiming she’s too easy on / aggressive towards [delete as applicable] Malcolm Turnbull / Bill Shorten [also delete as applicable].
But some (read: a huge bloody amount) of the criticism has been downright nasty, violent and utterly sexist. Criticism is acceptable; @-ing Sales with “Don’t want to sound rude but maybe she is sleeping with an insider?”is just fkn beyond.
And in the final, final days of this monster election campaign, she’s retweeting a tiny fraction of the abuse she’s been copping.
Let me call out the river of disgusting, sexist and relentless abuse I’ve on Twitter during this campaign with a handful of examples:
— Leigh Sales (@leighsales) June 30, 2016
@Mcali4 I’d rather watch dog turd turn white than watch @abc730 and @leighsales – disgraceful “journalism”.
— nick harris (@nickydivision) June 30, 2016
. @leighsales My prediction for 7.33pm tonight… #abc730 #auspol #Ausvotes pic.twitter.com/jBKcnPGz0A
— Peter Deane (@Peter_Deane) June 30, 2016
@CanberraMemes @LennaLeprena Don’t want to sound rude but maybe she is sleeping with an insider?
— Noel (@_SocialDemocrat) June 30, 2016
Don’t want to sound rude, Noel, but STFU.
Photo: ABC.
