According to Miranda Devine, being a mother is an unqualified mark of good character, while being childless should invite suspicion. Devine’s blind prejudice was displayed in her incredibly silly and completely off-the-mark tirade in yesterday’s SMH against Virginia Trioli’s appointment as Sally Loane’s replacement at ABC 702 in Sydney.

After reading Devine’s hysterical and blinkered rant about the assault of black-swathed leftie Melbourne feminism on Sydney’s pony-riding, rugby-playing, North Shore-dwelling radio listeners, I will never accuse Melburnians of parochialism again. Here’s a taste of Devine’s deluded dribble:

“The Melbourne-based head of ABC radio, Sue Howard, who ordered the purging of Loane, is said to be ‘anti-Sydney and anti-male.'”

If Sue Howard is so anti-male, how come Richard Stubbs and Red Symons are among her star recruits at 774 in Melbourne? In both cases a woman was unseated to make way for the blokes (the same woman as it turns out). For evidence of Miranda’s pro-Mum, anti childless prejudice, compare her descriptions of Loane and Trioli.

Loane is “happily married to Sydney judge Robert Sorby, with a 12-year-old son, Lachlan, and 11-year-old daughter, Isabella, and ensconced comfortably in the eastern suburbs.” (In Devine’s world being married to a judge and living comfortably in the eastern suburbs boosts your rankings on the good character meter.)

As for Trioli: “Unlike Loane, Trioli doesn’t have children, is avowedly left wing in an ’80s post-feminist Melbourne University way, and is said to be ‘up herself’ and ‘Brunswick cool’ – as in wears a lot of black.”

Note that Devine uses the qualifier “is said” a lot, as in “is said to be up herself.” This is code for “I’ve never met woman and have no idea what she’s really like but, hey, this is an op-ed piece, bugger the need for verification.”

It is exquisite to watch the ABC bashers engaging in the same kind of sloppy ill-informed commentary that they accuse Aunty of allowing.

Trioli and Loane are both very good at what they do. That they’ve been caught up in this ugly public airing of the ABC’s laundry says a lot about the insensitivity and incompetence of ABC management. Trioli does not deserve to be demonised, and least of all because she happens not to have children. Get a grip, Miranda.