CNN’s Tilt Towards Misogyny
July 2, 2010
by Amy Siskind
|The following op-ed is featured on the front page of The Huffington Post.
There must have been some major high-fiving when CNN announced that Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker would be taking over Campbell Brown’s 8 p.m. slot. High-fives between Bill O’Reilly and his producers, and Keith Olbermann and his producers.
By featuring these two individuals, CNN appears to be a network that has lost track of the sensitivities and sensibilities of its female audience. And, on the back of the bevy of female departures from CNN this year, one has to wonder if CNN has a woman problem?
As a New Yorker and head of a women’s organization, I received scores of emails from enraged women when word got out that CNN was considering hiring the disgraced former governor. The network couldn’t possibly be serious? After all, we had witnessed the very public humiliation of Silda Wall Spitzer, the brilliant, talented spouse who gave up the prospect of a high-powered career to play the supporting role and raise the children.
Silda was and is a tireless advocate for causes related to women and children. In fact, I was on the Planning Committee for My Sister’s Place where Silda was scheduled to deliver the keynote address on March 11, 2008 on the subject of reducing domestic violence. Many of us had months before heard Silda’s inspiring speech about the importance of getting more women into government. Tragically, on March 10th, we learned that then Governor Spitzer had been caught on a federal wiretap arranging a rendezvous with a high-priced prostitute.
New York women will never forget Silda’s demeanor days later when she dutifully emerged alongside her disgraced husband for a news conference. As detail after detail of Spitzer indiscretions surfaced, the normally vibrant and vivacious first lady of New York looked like a broken women. Many of us cried for her. Many discussed on the schoolyard how their poor daughters must be devastated and humiliated.
How can CNN grant this man the limelight again?
To make matters worse, CNN’s next move was to give Spitzer a “work wife” antithetical to his real wife. Whereas Silda fought tirelessly for women and women’s issues, Kathleen Parker is one of the most anti-women woman of modern day media.
While Silda stood with women politicians, Parker seems to delight in demeaning women leaders like Secretary Hillary Clinton (“…what she must have imagined sounded like passion was to mere mortals the screech of an angry woman.“) and Sarah Palin (“If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.“). Concurrently, Parker defends misogynists, extolling us to give Larry Summers a break for his statement that girls are genetically inferior to boys in math and science (Summer’s statement has been disproved, but did immeasurable harm to women and girls’ advancement in those fields).
Parker couldn’t wait to criticize President Obama for establishing the White House Council on Women and Girls, or ding women’s groups for defending Hillary Clinton (boys will be boys), or yawn over complaints that President Obama was excluding women from his inner-circle.
But Parker truly outdid herself this week penning Obama: Our first female president. A true gang tackle of our gender. As a blogger Sandra describes: “…it manages to both undermine female leaders by likening their leadership styles to Obama’s noted passivity and incompetence, and to attempt to emasculate Obama by suggesting that his communication style is feminine. It’s a masterpiece of misogyny.”
And one has to wonder. The New Agenda received emails concerned about legion of female departures from CNN: Campbell Brown, Christiane Amanpour, Erica Hill, Betty Nguyen, Heidi Collins and so on. Our assumption has been that the departures were the economic consequence of the loss of viewers. After all, men have been leaving too.
The public will likely never know the inner workings at CNN. But we do know this: CNN would have better served their audience by selecting Silda Wall Spitzer and a “work husband” for that 8 p.m. slot. Pass the clicker!
Excellent post and spot on. But I gave up watching CNN years ago because of their biased and distorted coverage, so this isn’t a total shock, just of a more lasting one.
One has to wonder. They’ve already lost their clientele, surely they didn’t expect this would DRAWN THEM BACK…….so that means they could only hope to retain the few they have left. And this?……OOOPS!
…:( sorry for the typos. Still working on the coffee thing.
Disagree some – I’m less bothered with Spitzer than with Parker. Her ridicule of feminism has been a persistent career move and look where it got her. She’ll cheerfully trade her chromosomes for a seat at the power table, and sell out women has part of her job.
Did you all notice the FEMALE promorting by BPAA (Bowling Proprietors Association of America) when they chose Sarah Palin to Keynote and bring on, as they stated, after her speach, and a number of pioneering female bowling executives and athletes in delivering a historic announcement of a new, revitalized Bowling’s U.S. Women’s Open in 2011.”
I also noted and loved the pink X in their marketing for the event Sarah spoke at.
http://www.bpaa.com/NewsArchiv.....asp?ID=239
CNN just put a story next to mine on the front page. Looks like 5 of the 7 anchors that have left CNN this year are women! Check it out:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....32732.html
But having a misogynist line up of shows and commentators is a result of Media consolidation and monopoly. All news originates from the east coast (in medias minds) and the east coast is a hot bed of misogyny. I live in Washington state where we have a woman governor, two women federal Senators, and the lead justice on our state supreme court is a woman as are half the other judges. None of these women are legacies. We have parity. In fact we have parity to the point where we have to admit some women are bad politicians and that women can’t solve all political problems (but we are the best hope). If national news originated from Seattle it would not be so misogynist because their news headquarters would be fire bombed, blocked by demonstrators or have the windows shot out, forms of communication that men can process as opposed to being talked at. But there is no competition for news channels because of the gate keeping behaviors of corporate media who insure there are no real or new or female voices in media. CNN in the least sexist because it does not come out of the New York/DC area. We need cable choice because I don’t want any of these channels and they are becoming obsolete.
Great post! I had to laugh at this line, “CNN’s tilt toward misogyny.” They’ve done tilted! They tilted so far they fell off the damn cliff. They’re now laying in a heap at the bottom.
I am shocked about the Parker/Spitzer special. Ick! That’s not just misogyny, that’s a misogyny circus. Send in the clowns! CNN, I’ll be using my remote control and your logo as a dart board.
I am not bothered by Spitzer. He doesn’t need to hide under a rock for the rest of his life because he got caught with prostitutes. In fact that whole thing was just weird, sort of like he was committing conscience career suicide. I also don’t feel bad for his wife. Do you think she was surprised to find out her husband was emotionally distant self absorbed ass? Who says Silda wanted to have sex with her husband? I do think she was an idiot for coming out and standing by him during his fake contrition speech but that is what some women do. But she probably wanted to avoid divorcing him so her children wouldn’t have court ordered time away from her with him in their future. Also if she divorces him he will take up with some hootchie and have more children which will dilute her children’s inheritance. Clearly their marriage is no love match but it serves some purpose I would assume.
Regarding Parker, she sounds like your typical woman media mouthpiece. I am a feminist and I don’t think highly of the liberal women “feminists” who sold out women. Really the last 20 years NOW types have acted like if they talk at the right people long enough some one will hand them their fair share of power. Well it is clear and has been for a long time that if you want power you need to take it and the males in charge don’t process language so you need to use other forms of communication.
Anyway sounds like CNN wants to be controversial but this sort of sounds like a dud of a show.
How well I remember the look on Silda’s face.
If you ask me, he fits perfectly with CNN. A loser network that comes in where it belongs in the ratings. Spitzer had a chance to effect some real change for a state with the most dysfunctional legislative body in the country. He blew it and I will never forgive him for that. You were no Mario, Eliot.
But most of all, I will never forgive him for the look on his wife’s face. The only good thing that came of his demise was that thief Joe Bruno, who worked hard to bring Spitzer down, got brought down too. How fine. They nuked each other from the underground.
Interesting how the women anchors are bailing. Serves them all right, especially Campbell Brown, for cooperating with the constant attack on Hillary in 2008, and forgetting that when you do this kind of thing to one woman, you do it to all women — and then your turn arrives.
The thing is CNN is apparently getting bad ratings so it is typical both for everyone to start looking for better more stable jobs (which could be be what the women anchors are doing) and for management to fire everyone in sight and try something new. So many of these women can be in the process of moving to better jobs. CNN probably thinks if they copy the other channels they will be more successful. But actually if they offered a more relevant alternative they would get more viewers. I like news but I am not interested in East Coast news or perspective. The whole TV structure is becoming irrelevant. It isn’t even worth fighting about improving it since they are committing fairly rapid suicide by devoting all their energy to trying to maintain status quo (maintaining their monopoly and gate-keeping new ideas out) and failing to evolve with the times and needs of modern people.
Thank you for the cross-posting, since I refuse to increase the HuffPo hit rate. I appreciate this article and most of the comments.
However, there more than ten sentences or phrases that I take exception to, and believe they should have been left out of several of the comments.
“Interesting how the women anchors are bailing. Serves them all right, especially Campbell Brown, for cooperating with the constant attack on Hillary in 2008, and forgetting that when you do this kind of thing to one woman, you do it to all women — and then your turn arrives.”
Well said, Uppity. This kind of sexism doesn’t just halt with the female person one wants to attack… it keeps being passed on and on and on. And eventually it does end up in all women’s lives one way or another.
come on people. we are talking choice hear. listen to yourselves. Eliot Spitzer isn’t supposed to take a job because of the look on his wife’s face when she stood beside him of her own free will? You act like she was a slave or something. She could have forgone the news conference. She had a choice and she made the one she wanted to make. Whether or not she is a victim forever has nothing, nothing to do with his future employment.
I suggest you all take a deep breath. Eliot Spitzer frequented the company of a prostitute and IT WAS CONSENSUAL . Women are not automatically victims because you think the guy is a cad. Move on. Hillary made a choice, Silda made her choice. Get over it. Women who are wronged are sometimes strong in spite of the look on their faces. Buck it up. Your reasoning on this one is stretching it. I can usually support your position, but not this time.
Judy: Well I do agree with you that the idea that Spitzer should never work again because he got caught with a prostitute is ridiculous. Frankly he needs to earn money to be of any use to Silda. And I agree Silda is dealing with it in a way that suits her needs or those of her children. And she I doubt she was shocked to learn the character of her husband, she was probably quite aware.
But Hillary stood up to run for President. She was mocked by the liberal media and she was essentially told to sit down and shut up by Democrats who threw out the primary votes of several states, bussed in ringers for caucus states, and didn’t hold a real nominating convention. I have always been an Independent voter but now I am essentially a Republican because I will not donate or vote for Democrats except for a few women I have supported for years. Hillary was shoved out by the woman haters in her own party, but we haven’t seen the last of her I bet.
Judy J,
You are missing a crucial point. Elliot Spitzer did not just have an affair. If that were the case I think we would all be moving on from this. The new Governor of New York has admitted to having affairs (and so did his wife) and so infidelity is not the only issue here.
Elliot Spitzer went hog wild after prostitution as a criminal franchise and then went to prostitutes himself. He humiliated his wife by partaking in illegal activities that he condemned as a politician but utilized as an individual. And that, hand in hand with infidelity, makes his actions the crap fest that it was and still is.
Also, you should really check out a great new television show, “The Good Wife” with Juliana Margolis. I know it’s hard for many of us who are not in Silda’s shoes to imagine why she stood by her husband. But life is complex. Having children is complex. Sharing decades of life, family, finance, home with someone is an extremely complex relationship. So Silda stayed with Spitzer, that’s her choice indeed. And yet of course she is still a victim. Unless you have information that Silda pre-approved Spitzer’s prostitution adventures, I think it is extraordinarily cruel to suggest that Silda is not a victim.
Alas, my last comment didn’t seem to stick, which is okay since this on is kinder.
Judy,
I suggest you listen to YOURSELF.
I don’t think it’s your place to be telling the rest of us what to think.
And while I cannot speak for the others, kindly do not ever tell me to Move On.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate your right to have your own thoughts even though I strongly disagree with them, it’s just that it would be nice if you would offer the same courtesy to the rest of us without us having to enjoy your chastisement because we don’t agree with you.
Addendum:
Consensual Adultery doesn’t make adultery okay. Most married people who commit adultery are doing it with consent. I’m sure his wife didn’t consent though, ya think? Fortunately it didn’t happen to you or me. Silda is most certainly a victim and I can’t see how anyone could argue it any other way. If he had any respect for her he wouldn’t have WANTED her standing on that stage with him, the pig. The only upside for her is she didn’t catch anything from him. If he were my husband, I would have killed him in his sleep. Just kidding. Well…maybe not…..
…And I wouldn’t spit on Eliot Spitzer if he were on fire.
It does appear that CNN approves of Eliot’s adultery, though….enough to give him a show.
Trust is a curious thing. Spitzer does not get a do-over with me…ever. He was my Governor, I even voted across party lines for the schmuck. But when HE BROKE THE LAW (last time I checked hiring a prostitute was against the law), I figure that the unemployment line for a few years is time served for the bastard. I haven’t watched CNN in years and don’t plan on doing it just to see the pathetic attempt at a news show.
Spitzer didn’t simply have an affair, what he did was far more insidious, he went after prostitution, using the full force of the government and the law. He betrayed the public trust and abused the power of his office. He didn’t just cheat on his wife, he cheated on the voters and the citizens. This is why he should never be put in a position of power again and he should be forced to join the rest of us little people working for a living.
He doesn’t need to work for a living. He’s born with a silver spoon – from one of the wealthiest families in the area.
This is true, Amy. LOL, but if there was any justice in this world he would be demoted to working class and that prostitute would be promoted to CNN.
Before everyone moves to Seattle because Bes thinks we have parity in our government, guess again. Seattle & Washington state are still operating under the patriarchy, same as the rest of the country. I see it every day in every way.
Patti: Washington has a woman Governor, two women federal Senators and half of our supreme court justices are women with the lead justice being a woman. However this has not solved all political problems. Many places on the east coast are so backward they haven’t ever had a woman Governor or Senator. Here when a woman runs for office the local media covers the race in a non sexist manner probably because for many years the Seattle Times editor was a woman. The sexist political news coverage is coming form the East Coast. For the most part East Coast people are completely unaware of what goes on anywhere else in the country. They firmly believe they are the most forward thinking Americans and while they may have some problems with sexism the rest of us unwashed masses are surely far worse, which simply isn’t the case. The East Coast has decades to go before they come up to the parity standards we have already achieved. The only reason I even care what goes on back there (and don’t kid yourself they don’t care what goes on out in the wild west) is because all media originates from there and they beam their sexist ignorance all over the world to infect everyone, everywhere and if that isn’t bad enough they represent their schlock “American Culture”.
Bes, your generalization of the East Coast being backwards is insulting to those living there, I’m sure. Local news in any state generally doesn’t include commentary/opinions like national cable news does so you really cannot compare the two. If national cable news originated from the West Coast, I guarantee you it would be virtually the same as it is now.
Also, I live in Washington so I know the facts. I simply don’t see it your way. Washington’s legislature is mostly men. The only reason our Senators are female right now is because they were the Dems put forward and Seattle votes Democrat. As you know, the last two elections for Gov were virtually tied between the male and the female so it could have gone either way. I wish I lived in your fantasy world.
As an East Coaster and former New Yorker, I would agree to some extent with Bes’s characterization of New York. New York, particularly the city, seems to be stuck in some Camille Paglia retro time warp version of female empowerment and it is still highly male dominant in politics, the media and many other big power positions. The tough thing about New York in terms of advancing women’s rights is that they already view themselves as being so progressive while they actually have a long, long way to go.
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