Anthony Mason played up President Obama's $89 restaurant tip on Monday's CBS This Morning, underlining that "when it comes to tips, President Obama is tops." However, the network has yet to cover a Monday story [1]
from the New York Times that pointed out the "uncomfortable reality for
the White House: the administration has named no more women to
high-level executive branch posts than the Clinton administration."
[audio clip available here [2]; video below]
In fact, none of the Big Three networks have covered writer Annie
Lowery's scoop on the air, which cited critics of the President from the
left on the issue of the administration's Cabinet gender gap.
Mason spotlighted the presidential gratuity during a news brief at the bottom of the 8 pm Eastern hour:
ANTHONY MASON: The New York Daily News says when it comes to tips, President Obama is tops. He had lunch with eight people last week at a restaurant in Rochester, New York. The bill was $89, and the President doubled it for the tip.
Of course, the millionaire President is more than able to afford such a
tip, as he has a net worth of up to $7 million, according to a May 2013 report [3] by the Associated Press.
Lowery outlined in her item for the Times that "by most measures of
gender diversity, including the proportion of women at cabinet level, the executive branch looks little different from 20 years ago,
even as the House of Representatives, the Senate and corporate America
have placed significantly more women in senior roles." She later noted
that "the Obama administration has a smaller proportion of women in top positions than the Clinton administration
did in its second term, for instance. Women hold about 35 percent of
cabinet-level posts, compared with 41 percent for Mr. Clinton."
Back in October 2012, open Obama supporter [4] and CBS anchor Gayle King hyped [5]
Mitt Romney's much-ballyhooed "whole binders full of women" remark at
an October 16, 2013 presidential debate with President Obama. King
asserted, "I think it's going to be the joke that keeps on giving. I really do."
One wonders if CBS and its Big Three competitors will get around to
covering the "little progress" in the Obama administration in promoting
women.