TV Hosts Ignore Claire Shipman’s Marriage to Obama Press Secretary Jay Carney 75% of the Time
Since Monday, April 14, ABC's Claire Shipman has been touring the network and cable news networks to promote her new book that she co-wrote with Katty Kay entitled "The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self Assurance-What Women Should Know." Despite the eight television appearances Shipman has made since April 14, only two interviews openly acknowledged her marriage to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
While five of the eight programs in which Shipman appeared on to promote her book ignored her marriage to Jay Carney, all eight of them ignored the recent profile of her and her family in the Washingtonian magazine. The five programs that ignored the Shipman-Carney marriage were ABC's own Good Morning America and World News with Diane Sawyer, as well as MSNBC's Morning Joe, NOW with Alex Wagner and The Cycle.
Here's how Washingtonian described Shipman's book and her decision to stay at home:
Shipman works part-time now for ABC News, something she's done for five years, which has given her more flexibility to write and hang out with her children. Flexibility, she says, is what most working mothers really want.
Given that Shipman is a well-known member of the establishment liberal media, it isn't surprising that all of her interviews ignored that her lifestyle conflicts with feminist's disdain for stay-at-home moms. While political junkies may know that Shipman is married to Carney, odds are that most Americans are unaware of this detail or that the ABC reporter is the antitheses of the modern-day feminist choosing to stay at home and raise a family and not working full-time like her husband.
Shipman's book was described as "Combining cutting-edge research in genetics, gender, behavior, and cognition with examples from their own lives and those of other successful women in politics, media, and business; Kay and Shipman go beyond admonishing women to "lean in." Instead, they offer the inspiration and practical advice women need to close the gap and achieve the careers they want…"
ABC's Barbara Walters and Fox News's Megyn Kelly were the only hosts to openly disclose Shipman's marriage to Carney. On April 14, during an interview on The View, Walters described the marriage as such: "So many women are crippled by low self-esteem and that's keeping them from getting the most out of life. But my colleague, Claire Shipman, an ABC News woman and a very good one. And the wife of the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. She has your wake-up call with her inspiring new book called "The Confidence Code."
On April 15, Shipman appeared on Fox News's The Kelly File where Megyn Kelly noted: "Joining me now, the woman behind the book,Claire Shipman, who's a regular contributor for ABC News Good Morning America and Katty Kay who's the anchor of BBC World News America. Thank you both for being here. Claire happens also to be married to Jay Carney. So, I'm sorry for ripping on Jay Carney on this show."
The only other attempt at mentioning Shipman's marriage was during an interview with PBS's Charlie Rose on April 16 when Shipman mentioned "I work part-time right now for ABC...and since I started writing books...well I liked writing, I like having time with my kids and so I made a conscious to decision to have less...Yeah right as I made that decision Jay decided to work for the government so now we're both broke but that's another story."
Perhaps the most egregious omission of Shipman's marriage to Carney came on April 21 when she appeared on MSNBC's The Cycle. Co-host Abby Huntsman laughably mentioned "Claire, full disclosure I used to be an intern at Good Morning America and I admired you so much," yet couldn't bother to find time to give "full disclosure" to Shipman's connection to the Obama White House.
— Jeffrey Meyer is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Jeffrey Meyer on Twitter.
