Those media male chauvinists are at it again.  Tears flow at the thought! They’re bullying us, they’re misrepresenting us, and they’re ignoring us.  They’re doing all that at once – and believe me, that must be hard to do.  I’m going to clench my fists and stamp my little feet.

A headline from Sunday’s LA Times blog screams, “Is the media keeping women out of politics?” Indeed, it seems the media establishment must be worried about this.  Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Lt. Governor Gavin, has a new film at the Sundance festival that once again accuses the old boys of keeping women out.  “If you think we’re in the midst of historic times for women in politics with Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and even Sarah Palin on the national stage,” notes blogger Amy Kaufman, “one documentary at Sundance is urging you to think again.”

How about that! “Even” Sarah Palin! We don’t need to ask why the “even,” since this crowd feels it must apologize for including her.  In “Miss Representation,” Newsom even includes Paris Hilton.  We can’t say she isn’t…well, inclusive.

Paris is part of “a roundup of media clips depicting women as promiscuous or catty.”  To provide commentary on this, “a stellar lineup of prominent women leaders and academics” are brought in, including Katie Couric and Gloria Steinem.  After the showing of the film, actress Geena Davis conducted a town-hall style presentation, featuring “statistics about how poorly women come across in children’s media,” and someone from Common Sense Media promised (threatened?) that “Miss Representation” would be shown to various media moguls.

“’We have to shame them, period.  It’s disgusting,’ he said, almost shouting.”  He’s into the spirit of it all.  And the Lt. Governor remarked that when he showed his wife a new Parks and Recreation Department logo of a child on a swing, he dutifully added a ponytail to the picture.  “We just changed it,” he told her, “because you sensitized me to these gender issues.”

Lovely.  I’m starting to feel all warm inside, aren’t you?

Exactly who are the women being so unfairly treated by these big, bad media giants? Are they Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, or could they – “even” – be Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann or Nikki Haley?

It may be true that the media establishment still tends to portray women as catty, bitchy, flighty and promiscuous.  I’m not really here to assert otherwise.  But I will say that I have noticed a marked difference between the way the “sensitive and enlightened” leftist media (which is to say, most of it) treat women and the version I have seen of it at a few conservative alternatives, like FOX.

FOX and its cohorts are better.  Much better.  Katie Couric may never believe it, but it’s true.