Women, Action & The Media want answers from WaPo

Members of Women, Action & The Media want an explanation from the Washington Post:

As members of Women, Action & the Media, we write to protest the Washington Post's production and presentation of the July 31 "Mouthpiece Theater" episode titled, "Menage a Stella Artois," and the Post's cowardly manner of addressing the controversy generated by the video's patently sexist - and otherwise tasteless - content.

We believe the Post owes an explanation to its online viewers as to how such a video came to be produced and presented on the Post's Web site.

And they draw attention to an aspect of the video that has gone largely overlooked: Chris Cillizza's reference to Chip Pickering's wife as "Bitter Woman From Hell" because she says her husband cheated on her.

More from the Women, Action & The Media letter:

The utter contempt for women displayed in this video speaks to the struggle that women face in every workplace, that women journalists face in every newsroom, and that all too often weaves its way into news coverage of women and of issues pertaining to women. The Post’s cowardice in addressing the problem — simply removing the video with no explanation, no apology to viewers, and no promise of disciplinary action to be taken against those who made and posted it — speaks just as loudly.

As I noted yesterday, the Post hasn't actually apologized for the video.  Nor have Cillizza or Milbank -- indeed, they posted a follow-up yesterday that suggests they have been censored, and continues to treat the matter as a (remarkably unfunny) joke.  A Post spokesperson says the original video was "satire," raising the rather obvious question of what Dana Milbank was satirizing by calling Hillary Clinton a "bitch."

Read the whole letter from Women, Action & The Media members here.

(Via Politico's Michael Calderone)