Sunday, March 18, 2012

PBS, we don't want to see it in 2012

PBS fails when it comes to diversity. If you ever doubted that, you missed the 2008 convention coverage and Ava and C.I.'s "TV: The endless non-news" and "TV: More sexism, more self-promotion." It was in the latter that they really noted the sexism going out over the airwaves.


That point was driven home best on Thursday when the boys decided to again explore women. It was interesting to see so many speaking about women and notice that not one person speaking was, in fact, a woman. You had the three male 'historians' (will get back to them), you had Jim Lehrer, David Brooks and Mark Shields as 'analysts' and you had a man from PEW research plus Ray Suarez. Eight voices discussing women -- eight voices and all of the male. Don't count on the increasingly inept watchdogs to call it out. They didn't do a damn thing when women were sidelined by PBS in Denver and they're not going to do a damn thing now.


They were referring to September 4th but it applies to Septemeber 3rd as well. And since, as usual, Ava and C.I. were alone in calling out the sexism, we want to underscore what took place before PBS prepares to cover the 2012 conventions.

7 men


1 man

2 man

3 men

4 men

5 men

6 men

33maN


There were the eight men always weighing in and offering opinions.

These were the eight men who discussed topics like women's role in history. Eight men.

Always eight men.

Sometimes, there might be a toss to Judy Woodruff or Gwen Ifill but those two had to stick to facts and report. Opinions -- judgments -- came from the men.

PBS shouldn't have needed Ava and C.I. pointing out the problem in 2008. And they damn sure better have addressed before the 2012 convention coverage rolls around.