According to this Mediabistro item, CNN is casting a new “Crossfire” type show, where liberal and conservative thinkers will go head to head. So far, the names mentioned in consideration for the show include Roland Martin, Errol Louis, Cenk Uygur and Steve A. Smith on the left and Roe Conn, Joe Watkins, Steve Malzberg and Joe Pagliarulo on the right. Hopefully the names of the women candidates being considered for these slots will be released soon. As we often note at the WMC, despite being 51% of the population, women hold only 3% of clout positions in media. And as the the recent success of Rachel Maddow has shown, news consumers are hungry for a break from all-male news shows.
The WMC will be closely watching the developments and will let you know if and when we need to take action to urge CNN to show parity in casting.
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9 Comments
Not everything is based on discrimination. Maybe there aren’t any women as qualified as the men under consideration.
As one of the 9 Regional Directors in the National Organization for Women I am dismayed but not totally surprised. MSNBC is mostly male dominated, FOX is, oh why even go there……and network news will add Diana Sawyor at years end. CNN, you would hope would be more forward thinking and want a balanced show that represents all people, not just the white guys. (of which I am one) Please CNN expand your view of whom you will choose, I already boycott msnbc, except for Rachel, don’t make my give up Anderson C as well.
Deborah Tannen.
Just sayin.
Not everything is based on discrimination. Maybe there aren’t any women as qualified as the men under consideration.
Do you really believe that? That there isn’t a single female pundit that would be capable of succeeding in this position? No, more likely the men in charge of starting up this new show, when not pressed to do otherwise, think within little boxes of “appropriate” people to host these kinds of shows. After all, we know women would be too focused on women’s issues, and people of color would be too focused on racism…
Don’t be fooled into thinking that when men are in consideration for a job it’s because they are qualified, and that when women are considered it’s because they’re potentially taking the place of a qualified man. That kind of thinking is – you guessed it – sexist!
We are taking an “wait and see” approach. After all, just because the eight names leaked doesn’t mean that they aren’t considering any women. But the bias is there, it’s both structural and personal. When the Women’s Media Center was trying to make sure that women’s voices were heard in the official Presidential debates, despite the fact that there were no women moderating, we were told that maybe we could get a question in the domestic debate, but obviously not in the foreign policy/international one. The belief that women’s interests and field of knowledge is limited to family, appearance, and the like is deeply entrenched. Having a woman pundit on either the right or the left on this new political show would be a great start for the network to achieve fairness and equality, which are, after all, basic journalistic ethics.
They have to find women who look like models .. first ..
of course you know the qualifications for women are umm more rigorous …its ok for the men to be jowly and fat … c’mon out of 34 CZARS .. 3 are women and one of them is strictly a figurehead she has no budget or staff.. So they are just following the current administration misogynist actions..
There’s likely more than one reason beyond gender bias as to why no women are in the new show lineup:
No woman was top-of-mind in the producers’ mental roster of candidates
Across the board women are lagging behind men in establishing themselves as leading thinkers or go-to authorities. (WMC has created the springboard for women to get booked as guests and contributors; I advise and guide women on how to transition from expert to thought leader.)
Producers either don’t care or it hasn’t occurred to them that gender parity will give them a much better show, and probably higher ratings
Sad but true, we’ve still got a lot of work to do to get more women shaping the face of the public conversation.
I would love to see more of this ,If theres more to be needed,Please feel free to contact me.
Maybe lunch with network executive’s and program director’s wives would be a nice idea.