Media
Aniston-O’Reilly Tiff Mirrors Gender Disparities on Women’s Equality Day 2010
Posted today on Truthout:
Jennifer Aniston sparked a classic Bill O’Reilly firestorm when she said a woman doesn’t need a man to have children and a perfectly fine life, thank you very much.
Defending not her personal situation but the character she plays in “The Switch,” her hit movie about a single woman who chose to be impregnated by a sperm donor, Aniston opined, “Women are realizing…they don’t have to settle with a man just to have a child.”
O’Reilly retorted that Aniston trivialized the role of men, saying she was “throwing out a message to twelve and thirteen-year-olds that ‘Hey, you don’t need a dad,’ and that’s destructive.”
Read MoreThe Politics of Elder Blogging
Susan Swartz is a retirement-resistant journalist friend who has written a book and now writes a delightful blog, both called “Juicy Tomatoes.” They extol the virtues and occasionally give a nod to the vices of the second half-century of life.
I ran into Susan at the Blogher conference her in New York earlier this month, when she ran up to me after I appeared on the closing keynote and asked me if I’d ever heard the term “elder blogger.” I had not, though admittedly blogging in general has the air of youth about it.
Read MoreWho Do You Nominate for the Bum Steer Award?
They say you can always tell a Texan, but you can’t tell them very much. Or at least some have said that about me.
Though I’ve been away from the state of my birth for almost as many years as I lived there, I have continued to subscribe to the Texas Monthly wherever life has taken me. It’s a great magazine in general, but I especially look forward to their annual “Bum Steer” awards, in which they skewer the high, the low, and the absurd. The intro to the just published 2010 awards reads, in TM’s typically diffident (and alphabetical) fashion:
Read MoreWho Do You Nominate for the Bum Steer Award?
They say you can always tell a Texan, but you can’t tell them very much. Or at least some have said that about me.
Though I’ve been away from the state of my birth for almost as many years as I lived there, I have continued to subscribe to the Texas Monthly wherever life has taken me. It’s a great magazine in general, but I especially look forward to their annual “Bum Steer” awards, in which they skewer the high, the low, and the absurd. The intro to the just published 2010 awards reads, in TM’s typically diffident (and alphabetical) fashion:
Read MoreIt was a year of accomplice apes, bedraggled Bugattis, Christlike Cheetos, dim-witted deli-owning Democrats, egregious errata, fatal foreplay, gun-toting golfers, heartless high school hoopsters, ignoble implants, jackass judges, killer Kims, laughingstock legislators…shameless Stanford, territorial T-Boone, useful urine, vituperative vixens…and zero tolerance zealots.
Daylight Lessons from Letterman’s Late Night Escapades
Guest post By Ellen Bravo, originally published as a Women’s Media Center exclusive.
The author, an expert on the prevention of sexual harassment and other issues of women in the workforce, suggests that human resources professionals and corporate executives take the occasion of David Letterman’s revelations to revisit their companies’ policies with the understanding that “sexual favoritism is sexual harassment.” I’m posting her commentary here because I think it is one of the best and most realistic about 21st century sexual mores for the workplace that I’ve read on the Letterman affair(s). Your thoughts? Read on…
I don’t know David Letterman or any of the staffers he had sex with.
I believe fidelity is the business of only one person, the philanderer’s partner.
Extortionists aren’t whistle-blowers—they’re criminals, and should be put away.
But whenever I hear the justification, “I didn’t violate company policy and no one complained,” my hackles jump up.
Let’s talk about why it’s bad business for the boss to sleep with subordinates.
Read MoreDylan Ratigan’s Women’s Moment
I was feeling better about my neck.
I went to a physical therapist about the neck pain I’d been experiencing. So a few days ago, I was distracting myself by watching Dylan Ratigan’s “Morning Meeting” on MSNBC while I practiced the boring exercise regimen Melissa, my therapist, prescribed. Ten reps three times for each exercise holding light hand weights as I hang over the bed.
The segment led with a rhetorical question about whether this could be the breakthrough time for women. La la. Heard that one before.
Dylan reported the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit was going on out in California. That’s a yawn—I went to the Fortune Summit five years ago. And that was supposed to be the time for women. Though I didn’t remember it making a media splash like this before.
Read MoreBefore Oprah, There Was Molly
[caption id="attachment_1540" align="alignright" width="256" caption="Filmmaker Aviva Kempner"]
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Before Lucy Ricardo, before Oprah Winfrey there was Molly Goldberg, powered woman and media mogul. In this Women’s Media Center exclusive, Emily Wilson interviews prize-winning filmmaker Aviva Kempner, whose documentary brings to life the star, writer and producer of the first TV sitcom, “The Goldbergs.” Yoo hoo, readers–Trust me, darlings, when I say you should go to the nearest theater where “Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” is playing. You’ll find a fascinating story that weaves together global events with feminism, anti-semitism, and the American Dream through the prism of one groundbreaking woman’s life. Enjoy!
Filmmaker Aviva Kempner, in town to receive an award at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, has a lot to say. She tells stories about a photographer who complimented her about her earrings, muses on why her hotel room has a little jar of stones (“Are these supposed to center me? Because I’m in San Francisco?”), and when her brother Jonathan pops in she greets him enthusiastically. Most of all, she wants to talk about her latest documentary, Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, the story of television and radio pioneer Gertrude Berg, which she says would make a perfect date movie.
“Don’t go see The Hangover, go see Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” she says. “It’s a great uplifting story for young women.”
Read MoreHow Do You Rate Media Coverage of Sotomayor?
A colleague asked me whether I thought this Washington Post article by Amy Goldstein on soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is sexist. I read it over twice–it’s long!–and thought it was quite engaging. It told me a few things I hadn’t seen elsewhere about Sotomayor’s life and personality. It reveals self-doubts that might not…
Read MoreKeep ‘Em Honest: The Media and Sotomayor
The Women’s Media Center has released a new video, “Media Justice for Sotomayor.” It documents some of the racist and sexist comments already delivered on high profile television programs, radio, print and online outlets.
As Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings approach on July 13th, The Women’s Media Center expects and encourages vigorous debate of Sotomayor’s qualifications & abilities. But we call on the media to refrain from allowing sexist and racist remarks to go unchecked.
You can help the WMC campaign for fair media coverage for Judge Sotomayor:
1. Sign on to the WMC statement supporting Media Justice for Sotomayor.
2. Pass this video on to friends, family, and members of the media through Tell-A-Friend.
3. If you are a journalist, contact the WMC for sources and experts on Sotomayor from our Progressive Women’s Voices program or SheSource.org.
4. If you see examples of sexism, racism or classicism against Sotomayor in the media’s coverage of her confirmation hearings, please send them to the WMC.
Bidding Adieu to Bud Shrake
Journalist and author Bud Shrake died yesterday. He was a Texas archetype with my home state’s uniquely expansive sense of humor and political history, as you’ll see in this clip from an interview he did recently with Texas Monthly president and editor-in-chief, Evan Smith. Note the connection with Jack Ruby, who shot JFK’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
Larry McMurtry, probably my favorite Texas writer, rated Shrake “an intriguing talent, far superior to his drinking buddies,” the latter clause of which might have been the ultimate compliment. He’ll be laid to rest next to the late Gov. Ann Richards who often said theirs was the best relationship she ever had.
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