sunday talk shows exclude women, again

[niyad]

Sunday Talk Shows Exclude Women. Again.

by Jessica Pieklo


It would be funny if it were not so tragic.

After a week dominated by the relentless assault on women’s access to affordable contraception, state mandate vaginal ultrasounds and personhood initiatives you would think one of the Sunday talk shows would have at least one woman on to discuss the political story of the moment. You'd be wrong.


Not a single woman will be on the Sunday talk shows discussing women’s health. Sounds just like Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) hearing on contraception. Or the cable news shows that followed.

In 2012 women should not have to demand to have a voice in a public health debate that directly and immediately impacts their lives. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) have stepped in to fill an immediate void, but this just should not be an issue.

But it is, and it only enables the attack on equal rights. Until women are seen as people in policy we wont be seen in policy.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/sunday-talk-shows-exclude-women-again.html#ixzz1mqgBkCEz

[WCGreen]

1. Psst...

Nobody really watches those shows anymore...

And the people that do are probably older white people who watch out of habit.

I use to watch Meet the Press every Sunday and then Timmy took over and it went to hell.

I don't know of one person who says this anymore - Hey did you hear what they were talking about on Meet the Press....

[niyad]

2. unfortunately, they are still on the air, so somebody must be watching. and, maybe, just maybe,

the reason fewer are watching, is because of their general failure to include women.

[Atman]

3. You're watching the wrong Sunday talk shows.

Up with Chris Hayes, and Melissa Harris-Perry both had women as guests and both discussed these issues.

I do agree that very few people watch those "old" shows like MTP and Face The Nation, except the Washington insiders and pundits who are the regular guests. They only appear as a way to shape news stories for the coming week, and to send messages to their donors, cronies and lobbyist friends.

[aaaaaa5a]

6. I wish what you wrote were true. But it is not.

The Sunday Morning talk shows draw large audiences. More people watched "Meet The Press" today than will watch Chris Hayes and Melissa Harris Perry combined. In fact it is highly doubtful their entire weekend audience combined equaled the audience watching "Meet The Press." TV shows like ABC's "This Week" and CBS's "Face The Nation" are also top draws for political TV.


The lack of women on the Sunday morning talk shows were embarrassing.

[CTyankee]

15. Hayes and MHP are refreshing! The only problem with them is that I end up spending hours

watching their shows on Sat. and Sun. and don't get much else done!

I simply cannot watch those old gasbags on MTP and FTN. And tomorrow Morning Joe has an all male lineup of guests!

I'm really pissed off...

[aaaaaa5a]

18. On my DVR it says MHP went for 2 hours this morning!

I thought it was on for only 1 hour yesterday.



That's 4 hours of programming I still have to get through!

[CTyankee]

19. Well, I coulda been doing laundry...

[aaaaaa5a]

23. I'm going to roll through both shows after the basketball game.

Its been a very slow news day.

[CTyankee]

25. It's not news, it's in-depth discussion and analysis on these shows that I particularly like.

And it's the inclusion of more women on the panels to get their analysis and discussion. It's a broadening of perspective. We so often hear the same old blah blah blah from the old guys. We need these younger women! There was a great OWS spokeswoman on Up with Chris Hayes today. She was terrific, having formerly been a Wall Streeter.

[aaaaaa5a]

30. Agreed! Chris Hayes' essays are very good. nt

[niyad]

20. I don't get msnbc

[aaaaaa5a]

24. Do you get FOX?

There are still a lot of cable companies that don't cary MSNBC or require special tier pricing to get MSNBC while FOX and CNN are offered for basic cable prices. This is one reason why FOX does well in the ratings. It is available to more homes than MSNBC is.

[niyad]

27. I think I get faux (not that I ever watch)--and it pissed me off that msnbc is not available,

but that worthless waste of airtime is--I protested loudly.

[WCGreen]

33. I don't look at that as a politcal talk show...

I look at those as thoughtful discussions that can go anywhere and not just a bunch of the same old same old spouting off partisan rhetoric. It's why the ratings for these show is in the tank...

Last Sunday...

Meet the Press 3,048,000 Total and 970,000 25-49
This Week 2,831,000 Total and 811,000 25-49
Face the Nation 3,005,000 Total and 1,074,000 25-49
Fox News Sunday 1,161,000 Total and 424,000 25-49

In a country with 311,000,000 people that is pretty pathetic as far as I can see. It works out to about 3% of the people watch. And I bet, because of the staggering, there are a lot of people who watch more than one show.

It's an echo chamber and no one outside of it pays too much attention to what ever it is they are bleeting on about.

[Zalatix]

5. It's time for more gender-balanced news, hopefully the marketplace will enforce that

let's see the marketplace make good use of itself for once.

[kenfrequed]

7. Wrong argument.

If political talk shows exist then they owe it to us all that they provide a more fair access to multiple political perspectives and not just be a place where WSJ op ed writers spend their bloody weekends.

[WCGreen]

32. they don't owe us anything just like we don't owe them anything...

[kenfrequed]

34. I disagree.

If you are going to pretend your show is about politics then you have a duty to your audience to be representative. Additionally the channels that are bad at the sunday shows are ABC, CBS, and NBC. None of these companies own the HD airwaves they broadcast on and they are leased from 'we the people.'


So yeah, they do owe us.

[customerserviceguy]

12. I watch them

I used to have a two hour block of time to catch Tweety's show, McLaughlin Group, last half of MTP, and one of my PBS stations carried Inside Washington after that. The latter show has disappeared from that time slot, so I have to watch it online. I get valuable insights on how people think, mainly because I watch the analysis sections, not the open propaganda parts.

[WCGreen]

31. Too much crap to wade through to get to the nuggets worth listening too....

they always have partisan hacks who just bleet out the party line...

[kenfrequed]

4. this is a serious problem

Those damned shows always had a conservative bias and became vehicles for safire, will, and kristol to ply their absurd bullshit over the years.

FAIR did studies of them years ago that proved this bias and this latest issue only illustrates just how one sided it is. The lack of women on telvision to discuss an issue that is important to women is a crime against equality and reason.

[customerserviceguy]

14. Tweety's panel

which he calls "The Matthews Meter" has exactly six men and six women on it. He always has at least one, usually two female guest panelists. So does the group over at "This Week" on ABC. It's only the McLaughlin Group that has only Eleanor Clift as the token woman, usually.

[undeterred]

8. I gave up on them more than 10 years ago.

There are no female hosts. There are no females interviewed. There are no Democrats interviewed much of the time. There is no reason to watch. Its a complete waste of time.

[DearAbby]

9. HEY LIBERAL MEDIA

Where were the women?


PSA: for the freepers who lurk here, did you see what I did there? eh? eh?

[zbdent]

10. isn't this more or less their M.O.?

I mean ... when Republicans talk about the problems in the Black communities, do they actually have black Republicans on?

How about whether or not they had Indians on any of the committees to deal with the "Indian problem" in the late 19th century?

[DearAbby]

11. I was watching the movie Brown Vs Board of Education

The school boards were white people, blacks were not allowed to determine their own children's quality of education. So this tactic isn't new.

[Rex]

13. Sad.

nt.

[CTyankee]

16. Occupy the network studios!

With signs saying "Where are the women?"

Barrage them with email and tweets.

Threaten to boycott the shows' sponsors!

[niyad]

21. I would be more than happy to do that--just have to look up who the sponsors are, because

I have not watched these programs in years.

sunday morning is reserved for the last few minutes of cbs sunday morning (the nature clip) and several hours of "classical arts showcase"

[lunatica]

17. No agenda there...

Why put women on when all we do is disrupt the nice flow of misogyny?

[niyad]

22. I know, we are so rude as to actually think women's issues should be addressed--and by women, no

less

[aaaaaa5a]

26. They are only being courteous. After all, they wouldn't want your

pretty little head to explode!

What, with all of this complicated political talk and "stuff" going on. What's a girl to do?

[niyad]

28. isn't that thoughtful of them?

[Rex]

29. Well you know...women and small planes and all that...

plus us men would just go crazy in a firefight if we looked over and saw you ladies get a hangnail...according to the leading minds of the GOP and Tea Party. The GOPers and their canards.

It seems too strange; women cannot be in the trenches with the men, but they can sit right next to men (behind them) while the men testify in front of mostly men 'to' Congress (mostly men too). IMO, women are far more in danger sitting behind the business suits (aka all guy panel) in Congress, then fighting alongside men in a foxhole. The real danger comes from within our own system.


Anyone know what qualifications these guys testifying hold?

Are they doctors? Lawyers? Just business suits?