There are a variety of Anglo-Saxon derived words in the English language that seem by their very utterance to have extra power for the sheer simple, gutteral, sharp-edged quality. Some of them can shock, even in this day and age.
There's the "S" word.
There's the "F" word.
There's the "C" word.
Somewhere in there is the "W" word -- whore.
As other nether-region-connected language, it can either be taboo or silly depending on the context.
These days, thanks to rap culture, it is somewhat lacklustre in its effect.
But calling someone a whore, unless literally meant, often means a poor assessment of that person's character -- usually in a professional context.
That was the meaning of Saskatchewan public prosecutor Murray Brown on the witness stand yesterday at the Milgaard inquiry, referring to the Free Press's Dan Lett in his coverage of the mounting evidence at the time of that wrongful conviction.
In short, he said Dan was a "cheap whore" used by the Milgaard legal team to put public pressure on the situation.
Milgaard may have been the beginning, but Dan has certainly been a champion of the apparently wrongfully convicted for some time.
Here in Manitoba, besides Milgaard, there has been Sophenow and Driskell.
Arguably, without Dan's work, neither case would have come to the fore.
Here in Manitoba, justice and police officials are also likely chuckling at the hard ride Dan is going through in Saskatoon this week.
To be sure, Dan can be relentless and at times seem quite unfair to hardworking public officials who are doing their best with the resources available. We certainly don't like everything he writes. Not by a longshot.
But, sometimes working as hard as you think you can is not good enough. Epecially for those working in the public interest.
And certainly using dubious language to attempt to tear down a journalist's character -- especially when he has in general proved to be right -- seems somewhat more telling of the speaker than the accused.
Another day we might delve into the gender psychology of words like whore, but we'll move on for today -- except to say that Mr. Brown is not serving the people of Saskatchewan particularly well by blaming the perhaps annoying stridency of a reporter as a reason for the failure of their justice department and police forces to address the truth in the Milgaard case.
If that is the criteria by which one is judged a whore, we would be happy to find ourselves in the whore column.