September 13, 2003

INSENSITIVITY DETECTED

Whoa! The Sydney Morning Herald is getting crazy with the non-PC language:

A move to expel Yasser Arafat has brought supporters streaming to his door, and he's as happy as a sandboy about it.

Wonder how many letters to the editor this will generate.

Posted by Tim Blair at September 13, 2003 09:37 AM
Comments

What the heck is a "sandboy?"

Posted by: Tom Brosz at September 13, 2003 at 10:07 AM

It's not a title you'd expect an Arab to embrace.

Posted by: tim at September 13, 2003 at 10:11 AM

Apparently they were boys that sold sand. Freaky.

Posted by: Paul Keating at September 13, 2003 at 11:49 AM

Err. Forgot to change name back. Hehe. Scumbags.

Posted by: Yobbo at September 13, 2003 at 11:50 AM

Nice one, Tim. Tell me, what's so un-PC about this? A quick google would have saved you the embarrassment.

Posted by: Robert at September 13, 2003 at 02:07 PM

political correctness is not based on the meaning of words

Posted by: lala at September 13, 2003 at 04:27 PM

A cab driver tells me he thinks a sandboy is a boy who runs onto the rugby league field with a small bucket of sand. A player about to kick for goal takes a handful to rest the ball on. The boy is happy because he gets to go on the field and mix with the star players

Posted by: Angela Bell at September 13, 2003 at 04:30 PM

at least they didnt call them "towelheads". lay off the S.M.H willya?

Posted by: roscoe p coltrane at September 13, 2003 at 06:38 PM

First it was Margo Kingston referring to "niggers in the woodpile", and now this reference to "sandboys". Does this extrapolate to the SMH using "sand niggers" instead of "Hamas activists", "Palestinian Authority", "the Arab street" etc.? Better yet, will Margo use this term next time she's on Phillip Adams' radio program - she'll be able to get away with it!

Posted by: steve at September 14, 2003 at 03:35 PM


Tim lay on with a will re SMH, the font of PC in NSW, just after the ABC that is.

Posted by: mike at September 14, 2003 at 06:37 PM

It is very sad that we in Sydney can't even manage one decent right wing broadsheet. I remember the old days (just) when the SMH was a pillar of the establishment. You could always depend upon it then. Coincidentally those were the days when the SMH had a vast amount of readers of readers. Since it has catered mostly for the Balmain basket weaving welfarocracy it has lsot all credibilty and half of its readers. If it wasn't the only Sydney broadsheet, it would probably lose most of its readers, as its coverage is so biased towards the left.

Posted by: Toryhere at September 15, 2003 at 10:10 AM