SURVIVING BIG SISTER

A long time ago in the last century, before Titles IX and XI, a critical mass of women were attending college and demanding admittance to graduate school. With the advent of these new laws, colleges and universities began to solidify their defenses against the certainty of women's grievances.

Certainty because the old boy professors had reigned so long supreme that any administrator in his right mind knew women in the classrooms would be considered prey. Conferences and meetings were held, colleagues in other schools were consulted and a conclusion was reached: "the best counterattack was to use a woman."

But this woman would be theirs -- their choice and theirs to direct. She would be given a fairly exalted (for a woman) position and title in the president's office. Her main job was to be available to women students, listen to their grievances and defuse any situation that might arise. We used to call them "Queen Bees." They looked like us, but they used "the man's" power to sting us into submission.

Now we notice that many of the media moguls are putting a similar theory into practice. They are using women reporters/anchors to go after women who are running for political office opposing conservative candidates. This way it doesn't look so much like harassment if a woman does it to another woman. Some of these Queen Bees appear to be like the African-bee variety -- and their sting can be lethal.

We have watched a master (mistress?) of woman-candidate DE-construction on CSNBC for some time now. Andrea Mitchell anchors her own news program, "The Mitchell Report". She has consistently been all over Hillary Clinton and her senate campaign with hobnailed boots. The current flap over the accusation that Hillary made a racial slur some 26 years ago has put Andrea in seventh heaven.

While most male reporters, even the acid-tongued Chris Matthews of "Hardball," say they do not believe this slur ever happened, Andrea continues to go in for the kill in her interviews. She is so singled minded that in a recent appearance on the "Imus Program" she made the "father" of all Freudian slips.

When Imus, whose dislike for the First Lady is well known, questioned Hillary's denial of the slur, Mitchell asserted that she HAD made it. Malice dripped from her voice as she declared that Hillary had screwed Representative Nita Lowey out of running for the NY senate seat and that indicated that she was capable of anything and everything evil.

Andrea is not alone in political fantasizing. It has been a hoot listening to newscasters on cable prevaricate over the recent change in the polls. Only a few days ago, many reporters did not even try to hide their glee as they announced the results of one poll that showed Bush in the lead by 8 points. They rhapsodized endlessly over the reasons for the "huge" lead and attributed it to what Bush WAS DOING AND SAYING.

Then with several polls showing that lead had vanished, most network reporters were stating that Bush and Gore were now in a virtual dead heat, but cable reporters insisted that "Bush was leading by 2 points" with no mention that the margin of error was 4! They attributed Gore's rise in the polls NOT TO HIM or anything he was doing or saying, but to other factors such as Bradley's endorsement or the Supremes' recent decision on late term abortions which "brought women back to the Democrats."

All in all, much of the news these days remind us of the summertime mishmash of "Survivors" and "Big Brother." In these shows, bits and pieces of events and conversations are recorded and then woven together into a fiction that we, the viewer, are supposed to believe. The motive is to entertain and the editorial bias is evident.

Privately some individuals in the news media admit that they want Bush to win because he would provide so much copy for them -- another Dan Quayle. We agree that Bush/Quayle do have claim to the titles of tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber, but that is no excuse for reporters to so blatantly slant the news or judge the candidates. They should leave the creative writing to the authors of "Survivors." Big Sisters and Brothers in the news biz should stick to reporting the facts.

twanda@gendergappers.org  

2000-030

Copyright 2000 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@gendergappers.org.

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