Scott Thompson: Political correctness and the ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ controversy

Is the pendulum of political correctness swinging back to the centre, or has common sense finally prevailed in a world of extremism?

Last week, the CBC pulled the holiday classic Baby, It’s Cold Outside from the airwaves, saying that in light of the times we are living in, the company had chosen to remove the song from its playlists.

The debate lit up all media and posed a question to humankind: have we gone too far?

Apparently, the answer is yes.

WATCH: Toronto residents unimpressed with Baby, It’s Cold Outside controversy

0:33 Toronto residents unimpressed with ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’ controversy

This week, the CBC decided to reverse its earlier decision and start playing the song again. In its initial response, however, the CBC said: “We decided to press pause to consider the different points of view.”

If it was really considering “different points of view,” how did we get here?

Clearly, it only listened to one point of view, and the song was yanked.

It has nothing to do with the lyrics of the song. It is another case of the squeaky wheel gets the grease: more people complained about the song’s removal than about its airing.

If someone is angry enough to make hay of content ignoring context, whether warranted or not, clearly the CBC will react.

This is not about what is right or wrong, it is about what extremists are whining about on any given day.

What it reveals to me is that the CBC put as much thought into putting Baby, It’s Cold Outside back on the air as it did in taking the song off — none.

Scott Thompson is the host of The Scott Thompson Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML.​​​