Candy Crowley – The Gender Report

Women in journalism: Reading list 10/21/2012

October 21, 2012November 4, 2012Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

The Gender Report provides a weekly round-up of links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. The links below are to noteworthy articles on topics related to women in journalism and the media during the past week. Articles included in this feature do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gender Report or its writers. View past week’s round-ups here.

Reading List

–Shot Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai can stand, communicate, hospital says (CNN)

–Sonia Dridi, Cairo Reporter, ‘Savagely Attacked’: France 24 TV (AP)

–Study: Women no longer need exceptional qualifications to win Pulitzers, but… (Poynter)

–Talk to the Times: Questions for Jill Abramson, Executive Editor (New York Times)

–Wilhelmina Model Robyn Lawley On Twitter’s Shameful Candy Crowley Attacks (Daily Beast)

–Teen who petitioned for female debate moderator: ‘No one — man or woman — could have done it better’ (Poynter)

–Good Girls Don’t: After suing Newsweek for sex discrimination, some women ran up against their own timidity (Nieman Reports)

–Sexist stereotypes dominate front pages of British newspapers, research finds (Guardian)

–Why does this shocking dearth of women in the media persist? (Guardian)

–Twitter Seeks Woman for Its All-Male Board [REPORT] (Mashable)

–One month in, Margaret Sullivan talks about the changing role of New York Times Public Editor (Poynter)

–So What Do You Do, Melissa Harris-Perry, MSNBC Host and Tulane University Professor? (Mediabistro)

–Penske Puts a Woman in Charge at Variety (Fishbowl LA) Michelle Sobrino-Stearns named first-ever female publisher.

–Kristina O’Neill named editor of WSJ. Magazine (JimRomenesko.com)

–Why Heidi N. Moore is leaving ‘Marketplace’ for the Guardian (Poynter)

We encourage readers to submit suggestions of articles to include in future editions of this feature by sending an email to genderreport[at]gmail.com. For links to articles like these throughout the week, follow @GenderReport on Twitter.

Women in journalism: Reading list 8/19/2012

August 19, 2012August 29, 2012Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

Reading List

–First Woman to Moderate Presidential Debate in 20 years (Women’s Media Center) CNN’s Candy Crowley will moderate the second of three presidential debates this fall. See our post on the subject here for a round-up of related links.

–For Female Journalists, Another Significant ‘First’ This Election Season On PBS (TV Newser) PBS’s Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff to be the first all-female team to lead a network’s convention coverage

–Mexican female journalists suffer from sexual, psychological violence, according to report (Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas)

–“Women” and “Journalists”: According to Mike McCurry, One of These Things Is Not Like The Other (National Women’s Law Center)

–The media’s ‘happily ever after’: Why are women like Jennifer Aniston portrayed as sad and lonely if they aren’t married? (Columbia Journalism Review)

–Meet 3 of Tech’s Foremost Female Founders (Mashable)

–How Can Women Gain Influence in Hollywood? (New York Times’ Room for Debate)

–Hillary Clinton on Being Asked about Her Clothes (Boston Review)

–Cosmo icon Helen Gurley Brown dies at 90 (Poynter)

–Longtime TV anchorwoman Kathi Goertzen dies after battle with tumors (Seattle Times)

–Protection Demanded After Mexican Human Rights Defender Receives Latest Death Threat (Amnesty International) On journalist Lydia Cacho

–Soledad O’Brien’s Amazing John Sununu Interview Should Be Taught in Journalism School (Huffington Post)

–Lisa Williams asks, “Do I Really Need to Learn How to Program?” (New Media Women in the News)

Presidential debates: First female moderator in 20 years announced

August 13, 2012June 22, 2013Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

For the first time in 20 years, a woman will moderate a presidential debate.

It was confirmed Monday that CNN’s Candy Crowley will moderate the second of three presidential debates this fall. A woman, Martha Raddatz of ABC, will also moderate the vice-presidential debate.

The first and last time a woman moderated a presidential debate was former ABC News anchor Carole Simpson in 1992. A woman has hosted vice-presidential debates in that time — PBS’s Gwen Ifill in 2004 and 2008.

The Commission on Presidential Debates fell under scrutiny for this lack of female moderators when three teens, Emma Axelrod, Sammi Siegel and Elena Tsemberis, campaigned to end the 20 year drought via Change.org petitions (see here and here) that collectively garnered more than 180,000 signatures. They had tried to deliver their petition to the CPD, but had been turned away. However, their effort gained support from a number of high profile politicians, such as U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney. Simpson herself also spoke out on the issue in an op-ed for the Boston Globe.

Following the release of the names of this year’s moderators, the girls announced victory on their main petition’s website.

“Through this campaign, millions of Americans learned that two decades passed without a woman moderating a U.S. presidential debate,” Axelrod said in the statement. “We are so proud to have helped educate Americans on this issue, and are extremely happy that women and girls watching the debates this year will see a potential role model up on the stage moderating.”

The announcement definitely demonstrated a step in the right direction.Several write-ups and Twitter comments on the moderator selections were quick to note gender parity with two women among this year’s four moderators. In addition to Crowley and Raddatz, Jim Lehrer of PBS News Hour (who has been a frequent moderator) and Bob Schieffer of CBS News will each moderate a presidential debate.

While this would seem to be an even split, it may not be actual parity. As The Caucus blog noted, “the announcement still fell short of some expectations.” According to the debate format descriptions, both Lehrer and Schieffer will moderate the two traditional debates at the highest level. In these debates, the moderator selects the topics and questions. In contrast, Crowley will host the only town-hall style debate in which citizens will ask questions of the candidates and the moderator will “facilitate discussion.” And, as previously noted, Raddatz is hosting the vice-presidential debate. In other words, the two debates between the highest level candidates where the moderator has the most influence and say will still be moderated by men.

And while gender diversity may be accounted for in this year’s line up, Eric Deggans has noted that the debates will have no non-white moderators for the first time since 1996.

Read more about the moderator announcement in the write-ups below:

CPD Announces 2012 Moderators (Commission on Presidential Debates)
Candy Crowley will be the first woman to moderate a presidential debate in 20 years (Poynter)
Gender Split for Debate Moderators (The Caucus)
CNN’s Crowley to be first woman in two decades to moderate presidential debate (CNN)
Teens shame debate commission (Salon)