Women in the media are more likely to garner praise depending on what channel they work for, one film critic’s story seems to suggest.
On Thursday, Los Angeles magazine published a story on “How Women Have Helped MSNBC Tip the Cable-News Ratings Scales.” Film critic Steve Erickson praised the women of MSNBC and the “growing feminism” at the network. But as he applauded the network for surpassing Fox News, he ignored a few key details.
“As the 45th presidency descends into psychodrama for which the price of admission is national shame,” Erickson began, “MSNBC has edged perennial front-runner Fox to become the top-rated cable news network by some metrics.”
Those were “some metrics” that he didn’t name. A January press release by Fox News told a different story. According to Nielsen Media Research, the network just celebrated its 16th year as the “most-watched cable news channel.” (It also boasts the top program on cable news with Hannity.)
But instead of addressing that, Erickson congratulated the women of MSNBC.
Towards the end of 2017, “when politics, journalism, and entertainment were swept up in revelations of sexual abuse,” he argued that “what was conspicuous was the extent to which MSNBC’s resurgence has been driven by women.”
According to him, MSNBC beat out both Fox and CNN.
“The dominance of MSNBC’s female reporters, anchors, and commentators is more striking when compared with competitors CNN, with its all-male prime time, and Fox, whose few formidable women such as Megyn Kelly have bolted, telling tales of sexual predation,” he added.
Again, Erickson left out that, according to outlets like The Wrap, Fox News leads on this, according to the numbers.
“In total weekday hours for women, Fox News emerged as the cable news leader with 15 hours of coverage featuring women as either anchors or co-anchors,” editor Jon Levine stressed in January. “CNN and MSNBC each broadcast 11 hours with at least one female co-host.”
But Erickson continued by naming those who played a part in the “growing feminism” at MSNBC: “intrepid Kristen Welker, Kasie Hunt, and Hallie Jackson,” Joy Reid, the “most incisive commentator,” “influential Mika Brzezinski,” the “departed Alex Wagner,” and the “keepers of MSNBC’s current identity,” or Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, and Katy Tur.
For those last three, he went into in-depth praise. He began with the “network’s star,” Maddow, whose civility towards “White House hack Kellyanne Conway is grounds for a Nobel Peace Prize.” And, concluding with Tur, he added, “it’s a small consolation that long after the 45th presidency is blown off its hinges by its own gusts of duplicity, betrayal, and dementia” she “will still be reporting from the front line of the second American civil war.”
Never mind that Katy Tur and Rachel Maddow, along with the rest of their network, regularly push a liberal agenda.
