From the Atlantic: Though it’s hardly shocking or novel that men are overrepresented in media and punditry, it’s horrifying how true that is even for issues that primarily concern women, as this graph shows (larger version here). On abortion, eight out of every 10 commentators are male. It’s only slightly better for birth control. 4th Estate, the media-tracking project that produced this graphic, says “women’s rights” is the issue with the most parity, but men are still a slight majority there, too (4th Estate says the category involves any story not directly or specifically related to the other three — so, for example, the hubbub after Rush Limbaugh called activists Sandra Fluke a “slut”).
Nor does the problem seem to have any boundaries of medium or politics. The three big prestige papers have nearly identical ratios of men to women, with males making up two-thirds of those quoted on women’s issues. USA Today is even worse. News Corporation, with its conservative leaning Fox News and Fox Business channels, is slightly more male-dominated than other major media companies. But left-leaning MSNBC’s Hardball has fewer women than Fox News’ Special Report, while centrist CNN’s State of the Union, though hosted by Candy Crowley, is so bad it could practically pass for the clubhouse at Augusta National. Full article here.
