MediaWatch: March 1988
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: March 1988
- Study: It's All Meese and No Wright
- NewsBites
- Today's Cuba
- Revolving Door
- Janet Cooke Award: Peter Jennings: ABC News
Janet Cooke Award: Peter Jennings: ABC News
Mid-February marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique. No doubt her radical feminist ideas have had a significant impact, but many argue her extreme women's liberation ideology has caused more harm than good. Friedan's views go far beyond the mainstream desire of women to have equal access to the workforce. However, most news stories marking the anniversary considered only Friedan's point of view and agenda.
For the most unbalanced assessment of Friedan's impact, the March Janet Cooke Award goes to ABC's World News Tonight and anchor Peter Jennings for the February 19, Person of the Week. ABC clearly set out to paint Friedan in a positive light without featuring the concerns of millions of pro-life, family oriented women. Jennings began by declaring: "As a result of the book...many young women today have a degree of equality that was simply not imagined in the 1950's." Jennings continued his glowing assessment of Friedan: "And women have come a long way since she just sat down and wrote what so many women were thinking but afraid to say." The lengthy report featured three generations of women in one family, all of whom feel liberated because of Friedan's work.
Jennings failed to mention many of the negative effects her views have had on modern society. As Phyllis Schlafly of the conservative women's group Eagle Forum points out, Friedan "had a significant role in bringing easy divorce laws to all 50 states, in the legalization of abortion which has killed over 20 million, and the fight for lesbian rights in the mid-'70's." As Schlafly concluded: "She preached a doctrine of liberation from marriage, husband and children. The movement she started failed in its primary legislative goal, ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)."
The ERA defeat might reflect the fact that most women and men in the country do not endorse Friedan's radical views, but Jennings still saw her as champion of all women. He concluded his segment by endorsing her radical goals: "And so we choose Betty Friedan because she had the ability and the sensitivity to articulate the needs of women, which means that she did us all a favor." When asked about the obvious imbalance, ABC News Press Representative Laura Wessner responded, "You can't deny she has made a difference for the better for many women." But why weren't critics of Friedan offered airtime? She explained: "Our selection is someone who has made an enormous change. We can do that with a piece." Refusing to acknowledge the imbalance, Wessner maintained that general standards of objectivity and balance "do apply to Person of the Week segments."
Asked about Jennings endorsement of Friedan's accomplishments, Wessner declared: "I don't see anything wrong with what Peter said!" Asked again whether it is proper for an anchor to back such controversial views, Wessner shot back: "This becomes really obnoxious, I don't spend 20 minutes with anyone else but you. Your persistence is unbelievable. I don't think it was an unbalanced story. I don't know what else we have to discuss. We don't have a problem with it."
In fact, ABC had plenty of opportunity to balance the piece with a critics views, but chose not to. Rebecca Hagelin, Director of Communications for Concerned Women of America (CWA), informed MediaWatch that CWA President Beverly LaHaye was interviewed for the Person of the Week segment. When LaHaye did not appear, Hagelin contacted ABC News producer Pam Ridder who claimed that LaHaye's comments had to be edited out at the last minute. ABC could certainly have edited some of Friedan's extensive comments rather than LaHaye's, but apparently ABC does not consider the views of non left-wing feminists legitimate enough to air. As Rebecca Hagelin pointed out: "It was ABC's feminist ideology at work. It's typical to portray feminists as heroines representative of all women."
