NOW Slams Bill Maher for Sarah Palin Insult, Chides Media for Asking About It

Bill Maher and Sarah Palin. (Reuters)

The National Organization for Women finally stepped up Tuesday to slam Bill Maher for calling Sarah Palin a female vulgarism after first declining to comment on the matter.

A NOW rep told FOXNews.com early Tuesday it was a “known fact” that NOW does not correspond with FOX News after being contacted for comment regarding Bill Maher's statement on his HBO show Friday that Sarah Palin was a "dumb tw*t."

NOW never did respond FOXNews.com, but the group's communications director, Lisa Bennett, wrote on a NOW blog later Tuesday: “Listen, supposedly progressive men (ok, and women, too): Cut the crap! Stop degrading women with whom you disagree and/or don’t like by using female body terms or other gender-associated slurs."

She also chastised the press for bothering NOW with questions about derogatory language toward women

“You’re trying to take up our time getting us to defend your friend, Sarah Palin. If you keep us busy defending her, we have less time to defend women’s bodies from the onslaught of reproductive rights attacks and other threats to our freedom, safety, livelihood, etc,” wrote Bennett. “Sorry, but we can’t defend Palin or even

Other women's organizations contacted by FOXNews.com on Tuesday did not have such reservations.

“Widespread sexism in the media is one of the top problems facing women, and seriously affects women in politics. A highly toxic media environment persists for women candidates, and discourages all women – irrespective of political persuasion - from running for public office,” Yana Walton, Vice President of Communications at Women's Media Center told FOXNews.com. “Despite the fact that women make up half of the population, we're only 17 percent of congress. Bill Maher's misogynistic comment about Sarah Palin hurts all women, not just Palin, and not just conservative women. By insulting her gender, rather than her platform or stance on issues, he insults women as a group.”