Can Mommy Know Best?

[donsu]

http://www.topplebush.com/oped2380.shtml


(every bit of this article could be posted. picking 4 paragraps was tough)


Can the network nightly news anchor evolve from the Daddy chair to the Mommy chair?

-snip-

Last summer, when ABC needed a replacement for Peter Jennings, I asked a top network executive whether the 43-year-old Ms. Vargas had a shot to be the first woman to get a solo network anchor gig. Shouldn't that barrier have been broken long ago? I mean, women can read off a teleprompter as well as men.

At first he sounded optimistic: she is not a news division heavyweight, but she is a lovely, competent Hispanic woman, which could mean a more diverse audience. And she might draw in younger viewers, instead of the dinosaur evening news demographic that mostly attracts sponsors like Viagra and Depends.

Within 30 seconds, though, the executive got jittery. "I know this is going to sound really sexist," he admitted with breathtaking candor, "but if there were another 9/11, I'm not sure if she has the gravitas to hold that anchor chair. ... Maybe it's not even sex. Maybe it's age. I just think we'd need someone with a little gray in their hair." (The network pushed Ms. Vargas out of the anchor seat in favor of Charlie Gibson when terrorists bombed London twice in July 2005, even though his day job was doing fluff on "Good Morning America.")
-snip-
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forgive me Maureen I just had to add this paragraph:

"I had to laugh. They'd allow a woman to present the news as long as there wasn't any news. If serious news breaks out, send for the guy in pants."

aahhh, sexism in america is so tedious.

[donsu]

1. kicking because of the men who are afraid of the words mommy and

critical newscaster in the same sentence.