Majority Post

Hanke Gratteau Named 'Chicago Tribune' M.E./News As George de Lama Resigns
5/15/08
Editor and Publisher: Hanke Gratteau, a former assistant to columnist Mike Royko, was named managing editor for news of the Chicago Tribune Wednesday, replacing George de Lama, who announced his resignation.

Diversity Isn’t Rocket Science, Is It?
5/15/08
NY Times: Back in the bad old days, the workplace was a battleground, where sexist jokes and assumptions were the norm.

In Kuwait, Female Candidates Make a Second Try
5/14/08
Women's eNews: Twenty-eight Kuwaiti women are running to break into the all-male National Assembly in the May 17 elections. One of the strongest contenders says their chances depend heavily on the support and influence of their elite families.

See the full WMC Daily News Brief at: http://www.womensmediacenter.com/daily_news_update.html

The Women's Media Center is co-sponsoring the Mamapalooza festival. Hope some of our NYC friends can make it this weekend!

FRIDAY DAY: http://www.yorku.ca/arm/PerformingFeministMotherhood.html
Performing Feminist Mothering In The Arts

FRIDAY NIGHT: http://www.mamapalooza.com/calendar.html
$5 Admission to Women In Music Mixer at MAMAPALOOZA and Arlene's Grocery, NYC

SATURDAY WORKSHOPS : http://www.eventbrite.com/event/103807491
With Music Panels, Performance Workshops, WIM & FREE Lifecoaching & Rock 'n Roll Makeovers

ALL EVENTS: http://www.mamapalooza.com/conferenceschedule.html
See a full roster of events around New York City, including Poetry Slams & Hot Mama Burlesque
(Attachment) MAY 16, 17, 18

It takes a leap of faith for a broadcaster to believe that American audiences will tune in to news about a medical tragedy thousands of miles away in Africa and South Asia that has turned more than two million women into pariahs in their own families. But as Peggy Simpson writes in today's WMC Exclusive, that's just what PBS/NOVA did in producing A Walk to Beautiful, a documentary airing tonight about the epidemic of obstetric fistula, a totally preventable medical condition that disappeared more than a century ago in the developed world, yet lives on in Africa and South Asia through complex interactions between culture and religion.

Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times wrote about this scandalous and oft-ignored situation several years ago while on-site in Africa. His column produced a ripple effect eventually leading to PBS/NOVA and Steven Engel, president of Engel Entertainment. Engel sent researchers and producers to Ethiopia, spending years developing magnificent footage and evocative stories about the impact of obstetric fistula in Ethiopia. In addition to the films premier tonight on PBS/NOVA, the documentary received a special showing on Capitol Hill, thanks to Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who is working to secure U.S. funding for the UN Population Fund's global Campaign to End Fistula. Through the powerful act of telling women's stories, "A Walk to Beautiful" may well set us on a path to addressing the epidemic of obstetric fistula.

Read today's WMC Exclusive here.

For Mother's Day weekend, NBC and Teleflora hosted a contest called “America’s Favorite Mom,” which invited people to vote on mothers grouped in various categories. Intended to celebrate a diverse array of mother figures, it instead denigrated a whole host of women with the title "non-mom." After many complaints, the category title was changed on the website to "Adopting Mom" with this statement:

Teleflora is immediately changing the name of our "Non-Mom" category to "Adopting Moms". After closer examination, we can see how this may have been offensive to moms who have adopted children -- moms who are indeed real moms to their children in every sense of the word. In fact, many of us at Teleflora are “adopting” parents ourselves, including our president and owner. The essence of this category still focuses on a grandparent, neighbor, step mom, or mom to adopted or foster children, each one raising and loving a child.

This show of insensitivity on our part was in no way intended and we deeply apologize for any concern or distress we may have caused. It was always our intent to salute and celebrate all moms.

This was flagged for us by PunditMom, who wrote a very thoughtful post about the appalling incident, questioning the need - in a society as diverse as ours - to brand our families. You can read it here: http://punditmom1.blogspot.com/2008/05/non-mom-really-are-you-sure-you-want-to.html.

The Teleflora mishap was also written about by the Wall Street Journal.

Journalists Under Siege in Zimbabwe
5/10/08
Time: With no word on a date for a second round of voting in Zimbabwe's general election election, further evidence is emerging of President Robert Mugabe's program of wholesale repression in advance of a run-off in the presidential race.

In Spring 2008, Anti-Feminism Is In Full Bloom
5/12/08
Chicago Tribune: Washington University, the distinguished, 155-year-old seat of higher learning in St. Louis, is giving an honorary degree to Phyllis Schlafly—archfoe of the Equal Rights Amendment, the UN, Darwinism and other newfangled notions.

Nepal arrests 560 Tibetan women
5/11/08
BBC: Nepalese police have arrested some 560 Tibetan women, including many Buddhist nuns, after breaking up demonstrations against China's crackdown in Tibet.

Read the full WMC Daily News Brief at: http://www.womensmediacenter.com/daily_news_update.html

Pressed Freedom
5/8/08
Boston Globe: Toni Locy was always a good, tough-nosed journalist, but now a federal judge in Washington, D.C., named Reggie Walton wants to bankrupt her and throw her in jail because she won't give up her sources.

The Fight Stuff
5/9/08
NY Times: Notable in the Indiana and North Carolina primary results and in many recent polls are signs of a change in the gender weather: white men are warming to Hillary Clinton — at least enough to vote for her.

Kenya’s Kazuri Bead Factory Allows Women From Kibera Slum to Build New Lives
5/9/08
Women’s International Perspective: The Kazuri Bead Factory, located in the Nairobi suburb of Karen, is unique in that it is Kenya’s first visitors’ attraction of its kind, created for and by women.

Read the full WMC Daily News Brief at: http://www.womensmediacenter.com/daily_news_update.html

In honor of Mother’s Day, author Rebekah Spicuglia shares her story about being a non-custodial mother living among the “Sex-and-the-City” crowd in the latest WMC Commentary. Spicuglia comments about how single, childless adults looked at her differently once she revealed herself as a mom. Yet she felt even greater scrutiny when speaking about her son to other parents once she mentioned that he doesn't live with her. Says Spicuglia, “At first mention of Oscar, another parent will ask what school he goes to—and our experience of mothering has so little in common, conversation comes to a standstill.” Spicuglia says it wasn’t until she started working in feminist circles, which provided supportive environments, that she began to feel comfortable again in her own “mama-skin.”

From Linda Lowen at About.com:

"Word-of-Mom"
Definition: Word-of-mom is a viral marketing term used to describe online and face-to-face opinion-sharing between moms, typically involving recommendations of products and services. Used frequently in mommy blogging circles, word-of-mom has become a recent focus of advertisers and marketers, as the 'mommy market' is estimated to be $1.6 trillion. Marketing expert and author Maria Bailey has called word-of-mom "the most powerful marketing tool in existence."

Zalaznick Adds iVillage To Portfolio
5/8/08
Variety: Lauren Zalaznick is moving up the food chain at NBC Universal. Currently the topper of the conglom’s Bravo and Oxygen cable networks, as well as its green initiative, Zalaznick was named president of all women and lifestyle entertainment nets Wednesday, adding oversight of the iVillage Internet sites to her portfolio.

Democrats Divide By Race, Gender, Class
5/8/08
Reuters: It's now common wisdom that the Democratic candidates battling to be the party's nominee for the November presidential election are closely identified with certain voter segments. A trend that has been chalked up to demographics and campaign tactics -- or mistakes.

Acquittal in Nun’s Killing Provokes Outcry in Brazil5/8/08
NY Times: Human rights advocates and the Brazilian government on Wednesday sharply criticized the acquittal of a man accused of being behind the murder of an American Roman Catholic nun in the Brazilian Amazon forest.

Read the full WMC Daily News Brief at: http://www.womensmediacenter.com/daily_news_update.html

Last night's election revealed common ground between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, reports author Peggy Simpson in the latest WMC Exclusive. Simpson says both candidates made it clear that they are on the same page when it comes to turning out their voters for the Democratic ticket in November's general election. Obama, celebrating a resounding 14-point victory in the North Carolina primary, spoke first in defying the skeptics who say the protracted primary warfare is polarizing voters and strengthening Republican chances of a November election, a sentiment echoed late in the evening by Clinton. Clinton, speaking in Indiana, commended Obama and his supporters in North Carolina, saying, "We are, in many ways, on the same journey. It's a journey by men and women who … risked everything they had to build an America that embraces us all."