Missing: Women's Voices from CNN Political Debate Show

Published September 09, 2009 @ 07:09PM PT

Apparently, only men are allowed to debate politics. Or at least that is the message being sent by CNN this week after they put out a casting call for a new "Crossfire" type show, where liberal and conservative thinkers will go head to head - except all the names of possible candidates so far are of men.

The names considered for the show include Roland Martin, Errol Louis, Cenk Uygur and Steve A. Smith on the left and Roe Conn, Joe Watkins, Steve Malzberg and Joe Pagliarulo on the right.

Women's Media Center covered the story after a tip off from Media Bistro. They write:

Hopefully the names of the women candidates being considered for these slots will be released soon. As we often note at the WMC, despite being 51% of the population, women hold only 3% of clout positions in media. And as the the recent success of Rachel Maddow has shown, news consumers are hungry for a break from all-male news shows.

I certainly hope they seek more gender parity in this political debate show. Otherwise, they may find themselves caught in the crossfire of gender discrimination and sexist casting practices.

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Comments (9)

I agree...We need more women in the media.

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 09/09/2009 @ 09:44PM PT
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Jen, Jen, Jen. Are you sure you aren't making a mountain out of a molehill. The network with the most female political debators is Fox News. Think about that for a minute. They have at least as many as NBC however; Do we really need more like Ann Coulter? Or do you not care about the actual POLITICS only the number of women involved in the debate vs the number of men. The sexism coming from the FEMALE side of the spectrum here is clear. If MSNBC airs a political debate that is all women, I do not sit there and say: "WOW! There were no men involved in that debate. How UNFAIR!!" I just accept it and go on with my life. Maybe you all need to be just a little less sensitive. And btw: I LOVE Rachel Maddow. Watch her all the time and Keith Olbermann too.

Posted by Mike Nichols on 09/09/2009 @ 10:37PM PT
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Mike - I am SURE I'm not making a mountain out of molehill. Why aren't they casting any women for this show? You don't seem to address this problem.

Posted by Jen Nedeau on 09/10/2009 @ 10:44AM PT
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Well Jen I don't really know since I don't work for CNN but then again you don't either; do you? Maybe there were no women available or of those that were, there weren't any who were interested in that particular type of Journalism. CNN has Lots of female Journalists, Robin Meade, Heidi Collins, and several more whose names I do not know offhand so they certainly are not a "Gender Discriminating" company by any stretch of the imagination. What exactly is your beef here?

Posted by Mike Nichols on 09/15/2009 @ 08:42PM PT
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Hi Jen, Here's a link to Q&A, a political debate show where the audience gets a chance to grill political leaders and luminaries in their particular field. Works for me better than Gerry Springer.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/

This week it was about women. Bit under an hour long but worthwhile viewing. You'll notice we in Australia are cycling right behind you. There was a woman in the audience from America who made the comment that the situation is much worse in the States. I hope we are slow cyclists.

Posted by Oceania OZ on 09/10/2009 @ 10:00PM PT
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If I'm reading this post correctly, it's about a balance of female representation in the arena of intelligent public discussion. What we have now is imbalance, where female representation is heavily loaded on the advertising side, and that advertising often portrays women as extreme, frivolous sex objects. Why is that, and what does that say about our culture.

The way I see it we can achieve balance in two different ways. Either we have more men portrayed in ads as frivolous sex objects, or we have more women in public debate. The former is yet another cultural devolution, and the latter moves culture forward. You'd think after all these centuries, women would be able to look back on the Women's Rights issue as a distant memory from which we could ALL move on. We seem to be moving as slowly on that as we are on limiting carbon emissions by 2020.

Posted by Oceania OZ on 09/11/2009 @ 06:49AM PT
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Sorry but the Ann Coulters, Jeannine Pirro's, and others like them have ruined it for the women. They are more rabid then the men. They lack sensitivity and hurt the women's issues.

Posted by Camille Tilley on 09/13/2009 @ 02:14PM PT
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Good point Camille. Maybe this is why there are no women on this particular show. Maybe CNN tried but was simply unable to find women rational enough to provide a good intelligent debate.

Please Note: This is NOT to say that there are no rational women out there NOR that us men are any better at being rational. (Look at Rep Joe Wilson shouting at President Obama. Not very rational)

What I AM saying is that maybe, just maybe; CNN went with the most rational, experienced people they could find out of the pool of those available and interested in the position without regard for gender or race or any other factors and they just Happened to be all men. Hey; come to think of it, isn't that what you gals have been wanting all along? Genderless decisions based on actual Qualifications? I find it odd that Jen doesn't mention the name of a single woman who is vying for this job. Could it be because there aren't any? Or maybe; they just haven't finished deciding yet? Why don't we at least give CNN a chance to finish the process before we start accusing?

Posted by Mike Nichols on 09/15/2009 @ 08:53PM PT
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geez Jen, what sensible woman would even want to be on that show? It packed with McMoron's speaking half-truths and distortions to support the private interests' subversion of information and the democracy anyway!?!

Posted by John Curotto on 09/14/2009 @ 05:52AM PT
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Author

Jen Nedeau is a social media consultant, progressive activist, feminist speaker and writer. She currently lives in New York City, where she works full-time as the Director of Digital Strategy at Air America Media. In August 2008, Nedeau was selected to be the Editor of the WomensRights.Change.Org where she facilitates daily discussion about the feminist movement. Additionally, Nedeau volunteers as the Chief Technology Officer for New Leaders Council, a non-profit that offers exclusive training for young leaders. You can follow her on Twitter @HumanFolly or learn more here: www.jennedeau.com.