Moxie Trumps Gender for Sawyer

In the April 26 edition of Time magazine, journalist and ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer answered questions from readers. This gem illustrates how newswomen have refused to let gender be used to block them from plum reporting opportunities:

In response to a question, "What is the weirdest thing you ever had to do for a story?", Sawyer said:

"I made my way into the Russian White House in the middle of a coup attempt when [Boris] Yeltsin was President. No one was being allowed into the building. I went up, and the guard said women would not be allowed into the building. And I said, 'I'm not an American woman, I'm a journalist.' There was a momentary perplexed look on his face, and he said, 'O.K.' It worked. Sometimes a non sequitur is as good as strategy."

The entire interview is at www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1982295,00.html

Where Are the Female Voices on NPR?

We often fall into the trap of thinking that more liberal media, more progressive media, including many public broadcasting outlets, have a better record presenting women as authoritative sources than they actually have. National Public Radio Ombudsman Alicia Shepard blogged today about her research on NPR's performance in this regard and found it very much wanting. Read her post at www.npr.org/ombudsman/2010/04/where_are_the_women.html?sc=nl&cc=omb--20100402.