That’s why I subscribe to Crikey and have done so from day one.

Rundle can be entertaining especially when firing on all cylinders but as best as I can figure out, he’s used this article to pursue an entirely personal agenda and has done so using hate-speech of a kind you’d expect to hear at a Ku Klux Klan meeting.

From what I’ve seen on the tube, Guy Rundle is overweight (why has he made this any of our business?) yet attacks Feeney’s “morbid obesity” and claims that his physique is the reason for doing what he does. The wide bottomed pot calls the kettle black. And there I go, doing the same disgraceful thing Rundle does.

If you don’t like what Feeney stands for and argues for then take him on for that. But his weight? It’s so obviously a cheap shot that adds nothing. Rundle scarcely explains what it is about Feeney’s views that he disagrees with. Readers are left not knowing anything other than Rundle shows evidence of being deeply troubled.

Attacks of this juvenile kind are high school style bullying and have no place in civilised debate. Rundle goes on to say Feeney should be in a pen at the Royal Melbourne Show. Hilarious, not. The author clearly needs to be in a cell of the padded kind if he thinks attacking Feeney’s weight is a credible way of engaging in a battle of ideas.

He even accused Feeney of being like Cartman, an anti-semitic and evil cartoon character in South Park. Given Rundle’s obsession with Israel (the part of his writing I always skip over in the daily email because it’s so predictable) and his enthusiasm for very nasty bullying, it seems Rundle might see quite a lot of himself in Cartman. I suppose being Kenny (the one who gets killed all the time) could be worse.

As I’ve said, when Rundle wrote of Feeney that Rudd could be “stabbing him through the eyes with a biro, so as to better mash his frontal lobes,” it did and does cause me to be worried for Rundle and worried about the editorial process that allowed those words to be published in the publication I support with my hard-earned.

Rundle went too far with this disgusting, vendetta-driven, vile personal attack. On this Grand Final Day, I encourage all to play the ball and not the man.

I think an apology and withdrawal of this muck would be appropriate. Rundle is too proud and too insecure to do that I fear.

This article was trash, not just a personal vicious attack in this public forum but with violent unfunny rhetoric. Violence is an epidemic in Australia, a national embarrassment. We blame alcohol, yet many cultures drink big and don’t engage in yob violence. It’s a serious issue we must confront. When people like Rundle unconsciously buy into the culture of violence with such vile, violent hate-language too, it truly makes me worry for our future.

Society needs vibrant intellectual debate, Rundle would see himself as part of it. But if this is what we writes, and is encouraged by a few dopey cheerleaders or the silence of appalled inertia, then we are wasting more time than we have to address the urgent issues facing this country.

It’s always been my hope that Crikey would be part of the solution, not be the worst offender in terms of media malpractice.

Rundle slams tabloids and often I agree they’re dreadful. Crikey’s willingness to take on the excesses of some in the media is important and part of the reason I’m a regular reader and subscriber. But I can’t think of one tabloid or gutter current affairs show that would use the disturbing hate-language Rundle used to attack Feeney. They’re better than that. And Rundle and Crikey should be too.

The references to “mobid obesity” and “not stabbing him through the eyes with a biro, so as to better mash his frontal lobes” are enough to have me questioning the sanity of this author.

What saddens me most is all the cheer-leaders above who are either all Guy Rundle’s one-hand clapping or an audience of people who don’t believe in anything at all other than sledging opponents without imposing any limit or scruples on it.

Pitiful.

Dirty Harry of course used a .44 magnum (and was pretty handy with his fists too )

Have to admit there is something a bit weird about a fist throwing journo reporting with approbrium the ‘bad language’ of a prime minister. As said once about Turnbull’s fearsome temper before politics - do you want a lawyer who is a wimp to represent you? Err no thanks, we’ll have the tiger fangs pointing your direction.

Actually the funny thing about all this is, Rudd’s people probably planted the story, you know like a reverse Scores poll boost. Enough to give him some character but not enough to frighten the blue rinse.

No, not really, unless you want to devalue the word ‘violence’ so it means literally nothing. These female Labor politicians are adults, not children. They can handle some naughty words I’m sure.

David Feeney supported the boycott of Durban II because it is anti-Semitic. It just goes to show that supporting Kevin Rudd on his pro-Israel stance will not get you very far.

The other eye-opening thing about student politics is that the buggers take their sandpit tactics to the bigger stage when they leave.

This one doesn’t even need a Mark Day version. Pure gold!