Posted on 01/12/2005 1:48:10 PM PST by KJacob
What an amazing coincidence.
Three out of four of the heads that rolled at CBS this week were women. What makes this so amazing is that none of the heads of the network news divisions are women, none of the current evening news anchors are women, none of their likely replacements are women, none of the people making those decisions are women - as a matter of fact, none of the people making the decisions about who makes those decisions are women. None of the investigators were women, either. In fact, in all of the stories about network news lately -- whether it's been about the anchor changes, the shakeup or who will be next -- every decision-maker has been a man.
The only time women have taken center-stage is when the terminations and resignations began.
Where does the buck stop? At CBS, it stops at the door of the ladies' room.
What the CBS scandal has done is reveal the dirty little secret of network news: who does the work. After two decades, my generation of women has made it to the middle. Women do a great deal of the heavy-lifting and bear a great deal of the responsibility. They just don't make it to the top, where the credit gets passed out.
Mary Murphy and Betsy West are hardly household names, but they are women I have respected for years. Mary Mapes, who I don't know, broke the Iraq prison story. Along with a single man, Josh Howard, the boss of the show, the three women are taking the fall on this one, while all of the other men involved, all senior to them - Dan Rather, Andy Heyward and Les Moonvess ... all the boys who make the big bucks - keep their jobs.
But if CBS had scored in the ratings with "60 Minutes," would anyone have been singing Mary Murphy's praise? Would Betsy West have made the papers, earned a million dollar bonus, gone flying across the country in her G5 to her mountainside getaway? Would Mary Mapes be the toast of Wall Street, or would she just be staying up all night the next week to do it again?
The corporate culture that created the pressure to be first, even if not fair and balanced, wasn't shaped by Betsy West and Mary Murphy. Mary Mapes didn't take CBS from first to third in the news ratings.
Nor are these women the only ones to make big mistakes this year. No one died as a result of the failure to authenticate the documents about George Bush's guard service, which is certainly more than can be said about the failure to authenticate information about weapons of mass destruction. George Bush's guard service was hardly the major issue some at CBS thought it was - he never claimed to be anything other than a son of privilege who had avoided serving in Vietnam, and the story ultimately added little, documents or not. Getting the presence of weapons of mass destruction wrong was quite another matter.
As press errors go this year, the mistakes made in reporting on the buildup to the Iraq war were far more serious in their consequences for the country than the mistakes made in this single story on "60 Minutes." This country went to war, over 1,000 young men and women have been killed and thousands more maimed, based on faulty information spoon-fed to us every day by our leading newspapers and media organizations, working from bad sources and bad documents that were not checked and not verified. In some cases, it appears, the press may have been intentionally misled by defectors seeking to influence American policy. Imagine that. And the administration - could it have been in cahoots with the defectors?
Where are the investigators? Where are the heads rolling? Will the buck stop at the men's room this time? Don't bet on it. Who would ever order such an investigation?
I guess Sue just realized the Dum women have been in the back of the bus all along.
Yes, but she's content with it - or she wouldn't be a die-hard democrat. How sad.
Welcome to the world you made, bitch.
The broads all take the fall for the big guy, if he's a liberal. Where the Hell were you in '98? I can answer: Servicing Billy Bob.
Womyn always have it worst blah blah blah blah blah...
Do you think susan has realized she's not really a woman , yet? Okay bring out thie pics!
Seems to leave out the point that Bush volunteered for Vietnam.
Just like Susan to play the "sexist", and "bigoted" cards. Sorry Susan, no blackjack for you.
Oh I understand now. They were only following orders.
Laura Ingraham made special mention that three out of four of those axed were women.
Susan Susan Susan... is this your first excursion outside the plantation?
Susan Estrogen wails the blues, wah, wah, ah-WAH!!!
New York Slimes headline:
"End of World Imminent, Women, Minorities Hit Hardest, Critics Say Bush Could Have Prevented"
(yeah, it's an old joke but still funny)
Please don't. She's pretty....hard to look at.
Is Estrich supposed to be some sort of authority concerning women?
Susan Estrich emerges from the cave she has been hiding in since November 2nd! CBS Memogate: women and minorities hardest hit!
Details details, Dums dom't need no stinkin details.
Geez. Finally women get the edge on men and Susan's gotta find the down side of it.
Looks like a real hot number to me...ha...
This lady needs to stop drinking the Kool-Aid and grow up.
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