Canada

First of all, it's a lot of publicity and attention. That's a good thing for any newspaper in this day and age when newspapers are becoming increasingly irrelevant, particularly among the younger crowd. You can bet that many readers will now be curious about what Leah McLaren is writing. How will she follow up on this? It will create somewhat of a following.

Then there's the suspension. One week is a slap on the wrist. Nothing more. If the paper's management was truly disgusted by McLaren's antics they would have parted ways.

Finally, let's not forget that Laren did not write, edit, layout and proofread her own column. There were at least a few other editors involved and if any of those people had an iota of journalistic ethics/common sense, they would have run that column up the flagpole and got it approved by the managing editor, or someone in a senior position. There were multiple hands involved in getting McLaren's words on the page and they all decided it was fit to see the light of day.

So, bottom line, I believe the head honchos at the Globe and Mail are rather pleased with the "fallout" from this controversial column.