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Aug

3

This is What a Sexist Looks Like: The Journalist’s Edition


U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart was famous for many things, but possibly his most famous quote had to do with hardcore pornography in the case, Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964).  The quote underscores the definitional value of imagery when, otherwise, words fail us or people just don’t get it:

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so.

But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that. [Emphasis added.]

And so the appeal of videos like  “This is what a feminist looks like” should be no surprise.  Mike Huckabee had What A Proud American Looks Like. And of course, even still photos can get tagged for being demonstrative of something we might not otherwise be able to put into words, even if we wouldn’t agree that it’s the only image that fits the subject title.

Last year’s video by the Women’s Media Center compiled nearly six minutes of journalists’ sexist attacks issued during just the 2008 presidential primary.  Most Americans hadn’t even heard of Sarah Palin at that point, but journalists have caught up in treating her in sexist ways.

One of the most recent incidents of journalists’ use of sexism in their work came last Friday.  Dana Milbank, a very well-known senior political writer who is frequently on television and radio roundtables and works for what could be called our country’s paper of record, The Washington Post, participated in what was supposed to be a humorous take on President Obama’s “beer summit” last Thursday.  The skit, done with WaPo’s  prolific political writer, Chris Cillizza, whose work I enjoy very much (and disclosure: he linked to this blog last week and he’s a fellow Hoya), satirized the kinds of beer different politicians might drink.  Most of the skit wasn’t very funny to begin with, and folks, including the Columbia Journalism Review, have commented on that.

However, the worst part of the skit involves Milbank saying, “We won’t tell you who’s getting a bottle of Mad Bitch” beer.  Then, an image of our country’s premier female politician, former Democratic primary candidate and current Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is shown.

Sexist much?

I know it when I see it.

After people from all over the country, of both genders and all political persuasions tweetbombed and wrote the Washington Post, the video was pulled and the WaPo communications director, Kris Coratti, issued this statement:

“The video was a satirical piece that lampooned people of all stripes. There was a section of the video that went too far, so we have removed the piece from our website.”

Now, Cillizza later tweeted, ”…we’ve apologized…” but I feel strongly that he knows better than that.

Coratti’s statement is no apology.  For one thing, it doesn’t include the words, “sorry” “apologize” or “apology.” And these are folks who know words – they are, after all, at the Washington Post and Kiras is, after all a communications director.

But the most disappointing and disturbing part of all is that not only don’t they seem to know what an apology looks like, they still don’t seem to really know what sexism looks like.

My suggestion for penance? Milbank and Cillizza, in conjunction with the Women’s Media Center or Women in Media and News, should be made to do two videos, not of the Mouthpiece Theater variety.  And one should be, “This is what an apology looks like” and the other should be, “This is what sexism looks like.”

For real. For free. And for their wives and daughters and mothers. (I’d add a third required video, “This is what humor looks like,” but I think that might be the hardest one of all to get right.)

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:58 am August 3rd, 2009 in activism, Blogging, Gender, Government, Hillary Clinton, Humor, leadership, Media, Mike Huckabee, Parenting, Politics, Sarah Palin, Sexism, Social Issues, social media, Women, Writing 

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