Photo credit: Janet Donovan
“I’ve never had to do a pet story, no,” said CNN’s Crossfire S.E. Cupp at the ‘Welcome to Washington: A Salute to Women in Journalism’ pre-WHCAD party at the home of Story Partners‘ Gloria Dittus.
“I’ve been really lucky. The closest segment to a pet story I’ve gotten is duck hunting with Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty and bear hunting in Alaska. I got the fun animals. I got a nice 200 pound black bear in Alaska, yeah.” The pet reference, of course, is how previous generations of female journalists describe their assignments: ‘Stupid pet tricks’ coverage as they worked their way up the newsroom.”
“It’s the decade of the women,” said host Gloria Dittus when asked why she chose to celebrate women in the media during the week’s festivities. “Having spent thirty years in Washington, building a firm up by myself, and watching great women who put a marker in the ground and built their careers, I thought it was time to honor women journalists. The four honored women were: NBC’s Betsy Fischer Martin, the Washingtonian’s Cathy Merrill Williams, CNN’s Dana Bash, CBS’s Jan Crawford and the New Republic’s Julia Ioffe. “I’ve known Betsy forever, ” Dittus told Hollywood on the Potomac. “Betsy is a dear friend, has been for a long time, and we share New Orleans roots together. Jan is a real trailblazer. Dana, hardest working woman in journalism some people say and I thought we should give a wink and a nod to the up and comers which is why Julia Ioffe is included.”
Amos Snead and Gloria Dittus
“From a media and industry perspective, the changes are enormous right now,” said Cathy Merrill Williams whose parents (Ellie and Phil) started Washingtonian. “The industry, as everyone knows, with the blogosphere and the social media is just in great change. From a women’s perspective, it is a great time for women in journalism. There are more of them, more doors open, more women on top, and it’s really great to see. ” Williams does talk to her mom about the business all the time, but fundamentally, running a business is about finding good people, and that hasn’t changed at all. If anything, Washington has become just a bigger talent magnet than ever especially in the world of media.”
Billy Marovitz and Cathy Merrill Williams
It took Betsy Fischer ten years to get to when she became Executive Producer of Meet the Press. “Now I am overseeing the political coverage for NBC. I like having my weekends back after 22 years of working on weekends. Yes, I’m glad to have weekends back. I think everybody is still working their way up. Young kids coming up today are putting in the hours and the hard work and doing the internships and taking those entry level jobs, working the overnight shifts just like we all did.”
Maureen Orth
Wanting a male voice to weigh in, we asked Carl Cameron, Fox News Channel’s (FNC) Washington-based chief political correspondent, what it was like for women in television. He dispelled the myth that TV newsrooms are horrible for women. “Of course not,” he said referring to any gender discrimination in the workplace. “When I started in TV, women were everywhere. Many of our shows are co-anchored by women. There was always a strong number of women in New Hampshire where I work. There were no borders – we didn’t think about it as women or men. We’d all just compete against each other. Everybody here is celebrating that contribution. It’s wonderful. It’s silly to think that there’s not more work to be done.” And no, he hasn’t been assigned any pet stories yet, not that there aren’t a lot of good pet stories. “Certainly not in my experience yet.” he noted.
Lynn Sweet and Carl Cameron
“My first job was covering local government,” Lynn Sweet of The Chicago Sun-Times told us. “in the suburbs of Chicago for a paper called Liberty Bell and covered school districts, townships and villages. The men were covering the same thing so we both were covering hard news so when I became a reporter for The Sun Times, I did general assignments, breaking news and my first beat that lead me on the path to covering politics was covering Cook County courts and government. I started doing a lot of TV when I was in Chicago state and local matters on local shows. When I came to Washington, I was actually lucky enough to be invited on shows at the beginning of cable. It was a time when Bay Buchanan and Mary Matlin hosted a show. I think with the rise of Obama, people just took more note of me. I still cover Rahm (Emanuel) because he comes to Washington all the time and I think he is in a very tough, rough time in governing Chicago.”
Annie Groer and Jan Crawford
So, getting back to the ‘stupid pet stories,’ former Postie and Reliable Source columnist Annie Groer, says she wasn’t so lucky on the pet stories, but was happy to trail blaze. She and Jan Crawford worked at The Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau together. “I think, when I look around and see all these amazing women in our business and what they are doing with the profession, I look back and think about when I started in the eighties and I was working with amazing women who when they started out in the sixties they would tell me about covering the pet of the week. I am grateful to every woman that started out that way and paved the way for us. These were fearless, courageous women. I’ve been fortunate to work at CBS, the newsroom is like a print newsroom with lots of old school reporters and there are great opportunities for women in television.”
“Depending on the bureau chief, and I will not name names, there were very interesting times in the seventies and the eighties, especially because of Vietnam. What I miss as a freelancer is the camaraderie, but I think because of economic times, organizations are regrouping, but I can freelance from anywhere which a lot of people are doing. I do miss the interaction of the newsroom.” And yes, Annie did the ‘stupid dog stories’ so you new kids on the block didn’t have to. Hey, we’ll do it.
