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When Campbell Brown started off this segment about Palin and sexism, I expected it to be another screed about how "mean" the press is for asking questions about her litany of lies. Instead, Campbell excoriates the McCain campaign for treating Palin as a "delicate flower that will wilt at any moment," arguing that it's sexist to treat her any differently than her male counterparts. Consider this her first "Special Comment."

"Bear with me for a short rant on another subject, because frankly I have had and I know a lot of other women out there are with me on this. I have had enough of the sexist treatment of Sarah Palin. It has to end. She was here in New York City today meeting with world leaders at the UN. And what did the McCain campaign do? They tried to ban reporters from covering those meetings. And they did ban reporters from asking her any questions. Tonight, I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment. This woman is from Alaska, for crying out loud. She is strong; she is tough; she is competent. And you claim she is ready to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff. Allow her to face down those pesky reporters just like Barack Obama did today. Just like John McCain did today. Just like Joe Biden has done on numerous occasions. Let her have a real news conference with real questions. By treating Sarah Palin different from the other candidates in this race, you are not showing her the respect she deserves. Free Sarah Palin. Free her from the chauvinistic chain you are binding her with. Sexism in this campaign must come to an end. Sarah Palin has just as much a right to be a real candidate in this race as the men do. So let her act like one."

UPDATE: (Nicole) It's still happening.  Palin gets questions, looks at McCain and demurs

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Amy Poehler brings back her Hillary Clinton with Tina Fey's eerily accurate Sarah Palin to castigate the media for their sexist coverage of the presidential campaign. Like Clinton, I'm a little surprised that this has become an issue now, especially after how much grief I got for complaining about it six months ago.

PALIN: Good evening, my fellow Americans. I was so excited when I was told Senator Clinton and I would be addressing you tonight.

CLINTON: And I was told I would be addressing you alone.

PALIN: Now I know it must be a little bit strange for all of you to see the two of us together, what with me being John McCain's running mate...

CLINTON: And me being a fervent supporter of Senator Barack Obama, as evidenced by this button.

PALIN: But tonight, we are crossing party lines to address the now very ugly role that sexism is playing in the campaign.

CLINTON: An issue that I am frankly surprised to hear people suddenly care about.

PALIN: You know, Hillary and I don't agree on everything...

CLINTON: Anything...I believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy.

PALIN: And I can see Russia from my house.

CLINTON: I believe global warming is caused by man...

PALIN: And I believe it's just God huggin' us closer.

CLINTON: I don't agree with the Bush Doctrine...

PALIN: And I don't know what that is.

CLINTON: But Sarah, one thing we can agree on is that sexism can never be allowed to permeate an American election.

PALIN: So please, stop Photoshopping my head on sexy bikini pictures.

CLINTON: And stop saying I have cankles.

PALIN: Don't refer to me as a MILF.

CLINTON: And don't refer to me as a "FLIRJ". I Googled what it stands for and I do not like it.

PALIN: Reporters and commentators, stop using words that diminish us, like "pretty", "attractive", "beautiful"...

CLINTON: ..."Harpy", "shrew", "boner-shrinker"...

If anyone wonders why Hillary supporters are upset over the coverage on TV and in the media just check out Alex.

CASTELLANOS: "Her problem is she's Hillary Clinton. And some women, by the way, are named that [bitches] and it's accurate."

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During CNN's primary coverage last night, a segment was about Sen. Clinton discussing the media's acceptance of misogyny into their coverage. Wolf called her words "provocative" as the panel begins to debate it. Later he says it's a little more difficult to discern than racism. Jeffrey Toobin makes some valid points about a NY Times article which referred to her as a "white bitch," (hello Wolf) saying that you can't say something like that about an African American. Not so for Republican Alex Castellanos, who not only disagrees, but thinks she is a "bitch" and says so with smile in his heart. Why does he have a seat with "the best political team" in America? Because he makes disgusting Republican attack ads. Being a distributor of slime in American politics really pays off. I'm sorry, he should be fired on the spot by CNN. What can I call John McCain now? Is it OK to call him pr*&k on TV? Is that OK? "Hi, I'm Wolf Blitzer and John McCain is a pr*&k. We'll have that scoop and much, much more as the best political team in America continues right after the break."

And to see Borger and Brazile---sitting there trying to have a rational discussion after he says the things that he does is just as ludicrous. Borger's retort is to say that a lot of voters don't feel that way and Donna mildly says Alex has a problem with her. I mean, really. What does he have to do to offend them?

Full transcript below the fold:

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A noted philosophe on all things gender related, (remember when she called Brett Favre "a woman" for tearing up at his retirement announcement?) Laura Ingraham was drafted onto the O'Reilly Factor to explain the Elton John thing to the confused host. Poor BillO apparently needed reassurance from Laura Ingraham that misogyny in America is, um, all in Elton John's head?

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BillO: You're a woman who's competing in a difficult industry, a very competitive industry...
Laura: Sure.
BillO: ...do you think we're, uh, a misogynistic society, here?
Laura: (smiling) Uh, no I don't Bill, you know, I think men and women are different, we have different challenges, and uh, so forth.
Bill O: And you haven't been, uh, held back because of your gender, because talk radio is dominated by idiots like me, white guys.

Hmm, why doesn't Laura bring up that conservative talk radio is dominated by not only the settled-out-of-court sexual harasser hosting her, but another idiotic white guy, Limbaugh, who is an alleged sex tourist and noted Viagra smuggler? And misogyny?  Who's taking her to task on The Factor about her own stupid, misogynistic comments?  What, she's blinded by O'Reilly's charming masculinity? Really.

Yes, we love any excuse to post another Anne Taintor magnet, but just how much more misogynistic can The Washington Post get? Not satisfied with the "why are women so stupid?" story, today's editorial by Michael Kinsley regarding how long it takes Senator Clinton to get ready in the morning seems like an office dare gone horribly wrong.

As more than one insightful blogger has asked, "You taking the afternoon off, Michael?"

Presented without comment. 

via Huffpo.

Co-anchor Brian Kilmeade asked Earhardt if she ever wore pantsuits herself, and she said she had, but, "Here at Fox, we like to be feminine. So we don't wear the pants." Kilmeade wanted to make sure he wasn't misunderstood, though — he is firmly against pantsuits. "If I was to run for office, I'd run on the pro-skirt platform," he said

In response to Brian Williams' supposition during MSNBC's primary night coverage that recent skits on Saturday Night Live including Sen. Clinton's guest appearance may have been a factor in Tuesday's primary results, Tweety almost seizes the opportunity to begin waxing misogynistic once again. Luckily for Matthews, Keith Olbermann was there to stop him, and scolded him in the process:

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Matthews: Dare we repeat what Tina Fey said was the new black?

Olbermann: There's another word that begins with the same letter as "black" does. Let's distance ourselves -- especially you. Distance yourself as far as you can from that.

Just as C&L has documented many times over the years, Media Matters notes that:

[W]hile Matthews has an extensive history of attacking Clinton, his sexist commentary has hardly been limited to her. Additionally, a Media Matters review of Matthews' MSNBC commentary found that, in particular, Matthews frequently comments on the physical appearances of his female guests and of other women on his program. ... (read on)

from a magnet by the marvelous Anne Taintor.

Just when I thought Chris Mathews had the corner on misogyny, The Washington Post (via Media Matters) just makes my whole day:

Though Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell has stated that "[c]oncern about keeping women as newspaper readers has been an issue for many years" at the newspaper, the Post published an essay by Charlotte Allen in which she called women "kind of dim," suggested that women were not only "the weaker sex" but "the stupid sex, our brains permanently occluded by random emotions, psychosomatic flailings and distraction by the superficial," and claimed that Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has been "marred by every stereotypical flaw of the female sex."

Charlotte? Oh, can I call you Ms. Allen? About your "permanently occluded brain": April Fool's Day is NEXT month, my friend.   Jessica Valenti at Feministing has a couple things to say to you, too.

Mark A. R. Kleiman surveys the wing-nut blogosphere and discovers that torture doesn't appear to offend anybody's 'values'....

...reading [the] commenters is enough to spoil your appetite for dinner. "We're not torturing anyone, and anyway torture doesn't hurt so much, and if torture is going on it must be unauthorized, and in any case the SOB's deserved it and aren't protected by international law." ..."and any way it's all the Democrats' fault because they hate Bush and America so much you can't believe anything they say, even when it's true." Naturally, there's the obligatory reference to fraternity hazing.

The Guardian Quiet, or I'll call democracy

Iraqi women were long the most liberated in the Middle East. Occupation has confined them to their homes

The US state department has launched a $10m "Iraqi women's democracy initiative" to train Iraqi women in the skills and practices of democratic life ahead of the forthcoming elections. ...The fact that the money will go mainly to organizations embedded with the US administration, such as the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) founded by Dick Cheney's wife Lynn, was, of course, not mentioned.