I always knew these ignorant feminists were morons...now, they prove it!!
NOW's Bewildering Picks and Pans
By Lisa de Moraes
Monday, July 2, 2001; Page C07
Stating the obvious, the National Organization for Women has officially crowned UPN's "WWF Smackdown!" the skankiest series on prime-time broadcast television.
The best of the bunch is "Gilmore Girls," that family-friendly WB drama series about a hot, young, intelligent, size 0 single mom and her hot, even younger, super-intelligent, size 0 daughter and what a totally more-like-girlfriends relationship they have, according to NOW's second annual Feminist Primetime Report.
That's due in part to the fact that NOW looked at not a single returning series on ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox in this year's study. Why? Because, NOW said, it looked at them last year. Too bad, because that means it missed that very special episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger" in which Chuck Norris got in touch with his feminine side.
Last year, on the other hand, NOW ignored WB and UPN, which was curious because WB particularly targets young female viewers and has many series with female leads. This year, NOW says, it decided to include the two newer networks, which is good, but it left out almost all series on the major networks, which produced some very wonky study results.
Like "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" being named the second-most "woman friendly fare" on network prime-time TV.
Did I mention it's about witches?
But NOW blasts "Dark Angel" and "Charmed" because both series show women using supernatural powers.
And wouldn't you think that NOW would love the take-no-prisoners host of "Weakest Link," Anne Robinson -- a 56-year-old former journalist who single-handedly saved the skins of the youth maniacs at NBC?
Nope. The quiz show gets marked down "for its host's nasty demeanor," NOW says. Goodbye.
On the other hand, NOW's No. 3 most feminist-friendly series this year is WB's "Felicity," a program whose ratings fortunes rise or fall depending on the hair length of the lead character -- a hot, young, intelligent, size 0 college coed who's biggest dilemma in life seems to be choosing between cute Noel and cute Benjamin.
No. 4 is "What About Joan," an ABC sitcom in which no one -- including the female lead -- can believe that a guy who looks like Kyle Chandler would be involved with a woman who looks like Joan Cusack, who is not hot, young or a size 0. And while the show's cute and all, talk about a woman with confidence issues. Still, it's a top-five series in NOW's book.
And finally, there's WB's "Popstars," which, NOW says, "came in, shockingly, at number 5." How about that? Even NOW can't believe these results.
"Popstars" is about the making and marketing of a faux pop girl group, and its clear message to young women is that if they want to make it in the music business, they had better be hot, young and a size 0.
NOW explains that the series scored a lot of extra points because it included "numerous female participants" and minorities. If "numerous female participants" and minorities pushed "Popstars" into the top five this year, why wasn't "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" a top five show in NOW's feminist TV tally last year? It had 50 female contestants, including some minorities, and only one lousy male millionaire.
Instead, the riveting Fox TV special topped NOW's skank-o-meter last year.
Is this fair?
While "Popstars" ranks No. 5, CBS's "CSI" finished only 38th, which puts it nearer to "WWF Smackdown!" in NOW's female-friendliness pecking order.
"CSI" is a drama series in which two very intelligent women are seen using their considerable scientific skills to apprehend criminals, NOW concedes. And one of the show's stars is a woman who's actually in her forties, which NOW forgot to point out. But "CSI" lost points with NOW because it shows dead bodies, the organization said. Was I asleep when dead bodies in a crime drama became an anti-woman thing?
Even so, "CSI" makes the elite list of only 10 series among the nearly 60 it surveyed that NOW says it recommends.
"Popstars" does not.
It's almost as if even NOW isn't buying this study.
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Minorities hold about one-quarter of TV news jobs in this country -- the highest figure ever, according to the Radio and Television News Directors Association.
And that figure is a lot higher than the numbers in newsrooms at radio stations and daily newspapers, according to the association's latest look at women and minorities in radio and TV news.
Just under 22 percent of news jobs at English-speaking stations are held by minorities in 2001. Factor in Spanish-language stations, and the figure rises to 24.6 percent. At radio stations, minorities hold just 10.7 percent of news jobs. And at daily newspapers, about 12 percent, according to the survey, which was conducted by the association and Ball State University.
Women make up just under 40 percent of the TV news workforce. That figure is only slightly lower at radio news and daily newspapers.
When it comes to the top TV news job, however, white men are still firmly in control. There are fewer minority news directors at TV stations this year than last -- down to 8 percent compared with 14 percent in 2000. And only about 20 percent of TV news directors are women.
Which parallels the profile of the top job at the TV station: general manager. "The white male world of TV general managers is actually a bit more white and a bit more male this year than last," RTNDA says. Among non-Spanish TV stations, the percentage of minority general managers is only 6.6 percent.
For its study, RTNDA looked at 731 of the nation's 1,387 television stations and 278 of the 1,193 radio stations. It obtained its information about daily newspapers from a study conducted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors in April, looking at 950 newspapers across the country.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
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Just a note, I despise those sluts who make up the band that came from Popstars. These women, I mean girls, are the epitomy of what is wrong with young people and women for that matter. Not all women are like this, thank God! Also...Felicity? This is a show about an immature girl who thinks about sex and not much else. I have a friend who worked with her, and she is a total moron when it comes to remembering lines, and if you ask me, she is a horrible actress in the first place. NOW is a horrible orginization of sexist women who are in existance for one reason...most of them are too ugly to get men, so they have to lash out at them. They make me ashamed to be human, and this lists makes me sick.....
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July 7, 2001 -- JBoze3131@hotmail.com