They Can Run, But They Can't Moderate - Why No Women Presiding Over a Presidential Debate?
Monday September 29, 2008
As President of the Women's Media Center, Carol Jenkins has developed a keen eye for recognizing how mainstream media slights women every day. As we look back on last Friday's debate between McCain and Obama, Jenkins brings up a very legitimate concern: How come we never see women moderate the presidential debates?
In a year when Hillary Clinton won more votes than any other previous runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, and Sarah Palin is number two on the GOP ticket, you'd think we'd see a woman presiding over at least one post-primary presidential debate.
Sure, Gwen Ifill will be handling this Thursday's Vice Presidential debate between Palin and Joe Biden. And that's all very well and good. But do you know the last time a woman moderated a presidential debate?
It only happened once. And it was surprisingly long ago. In her commentary, "Show Me the Women" at the Huffington Post, Jenkins has the answer...and why women are overlooked, not only for this high honor, but for positions in media at the top levels.
Comments
Good points. Ironically, Ifill is getting the debate that will likely be the most watched.
There’s a mild complication in that it’s just been announced that Ifill has a book to be released on Inauguration Day, titled “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama” which of course will do well if Obama is the one being inaugurated.
The Post Chronicle article links to a sarcastic NY Post article about this, but only Republican-oriented sites are even mentioning the book and its planned publication date by Random House.