"Mad Men" way of treating women at work is inexcusable

Aneurin, who operates a blog called "Politics are a blood sport" down in Clark County, has a few choice words to say about The Columbian editor's op ed piece regarding Doug Southerland's service to the state of Washington. Aneurin is offended at the media's lack of coverage of Lands Commissioner Doug Southerland's behavior towards a female DNR employee.

"Look, I'm sure for Laird's generation, this whole Mad Men way of treating women at work is all fine and dandy, but in this day and age, it's inexcusable. Traditional media did an incredibly poor job of covering this story, bordering on journalistic malpractice, and Laird is excusing the behavior. Either he doesn't pay attention to Puget Sound area newspapers, or he's covering up for Sutherland's incompetence and workplace boorishness."

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Goldy, at HorsesAss writes, "Imagine you are a young woman, excited to embark on your chosen career, only days on the job at DNR. Imagine you are surrounded by peers and supervisors at your first statewide meeting, about to be introduced to the Commissioner of Public Lands, a statewide elected official. And now imagine the 68-year-old Sutherland spins you around, fondles you, and dismisses you with a sexually suggestive comment… only to have your immediate supervisor imply that you somehow brought the harassment upon yourself. How could your day get any worse?" http://www.horsesass.org/?p=5191

The young woman never filed an action in court. For the record, Commissioner Southerland's daughter is an attorney who specializes in sexual harassment cases.

*Laird is an editor for The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, WA . The entire post can be read here: http://aneurinsblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/broderism-clark-county-style.html