Reminder: Women Are Half the Population

So, Mark Halperin and his editors over at Time thought this was an appropriate image to use of Senator Mary Landrieu's (D-LA):

If you can't see the image (care of Media Matters), or can't believe what you're seeing, it's an image of Senator Landrieu Photoshopped to resemble the iconic semen-hair scene from the film There's Something About Mary, under the headline "There's (Still) Something About Mary." As Morgan points out over at Media Matters, the image is:

part of a broader, sexist right-wing narrative that the U.S. Senator from Louisiana is, as Glenn Beck put it yesterday, "a high-class prostitute" engaged in "hookin'" -- all because she lobbied Senate leadership for expanded Medicaid funding for Louisiana in the Senate health care bill in what was characterized by the media as an exchange for her "yea" vote to proceed with floor debate on the bill.

Not to be left out, Rush Limbaugh got in on the action yesterday too, declaring that Landrieu "may be the most expensive prostitute in the history of prostitution."

For the record, that narrative about Landrieu isn't even fact-based: What she got in return for her vote was a promise to rectify a federal government failure after Hurricane Katrina, not some kind of special gift that no one else is getting.

Which doesn't mean this picture would have been appropriate if she had gotten some special sweetener in exchange for her vote.

I'll just reiterate what I said when Washington Post reporters Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza were pulling similar bullshit: I'd love to hear Time explain how they feel confident their contributors are giving balanced coverage to female public figures when they consider the above acceptable commentary.

Yes, the image was pulled, but Mark Halperin thought it was appropriate to publish. Why on earth should I, or anyone else, trust that his internalized misogyny isn't affecting his ability to objectively cover half the population? Why are the Time editors trusting him with that responsibility?

Email Time.