feminism ain't easy: all apologies

I saw this on the news last night about an exchange between Ted Cruz and Dianne Feinstein in a senate judiciary committee hearing.  It bothered me, but not for the reason you might suspect.

I'm not overly upset about Ted Cruz and his line of reasoning. Sure, I disagree with him.  I also figure if he wants to make his underlying argument look weaker by trying to be condescending, that's his decision.

What concerns me about this story -- and others recounting the exchange between Cruz and Feinstein -- is the mention at the end of her apologizing to him after the fact.  If you watch the conversation in full and not edited for prime time news (available here), you'll see that Senators Leahy and Durbin also had some cutting remarks for Cruz.  In my opinion, none of the comments, Feinstein's included, were inappropriate or disrespectfully irate.  I'm at a loss as to why she should feel the need to apologize for making a strong argument in defense of her opinions.

More to the point, why is it relevant to the journalistic recounting of events?  I can't recall the last time a story on male legislators mentioned that one apologized to another.  Maybe the men of Washington apologize to each other all over the place.  Who am I to know?  Whether they do or they don't isn't my point, though, it's that if they do, we don't hear about it (and probably don't need to).  The fact that major media outlets seem to only find it relevant when a female senator apologizes: that's what I find problematic.