Can Chicks Read The News As Well As Dudes?

Apparently no, says Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Gail Shister [via CNN's Reliable Sources]:

HOWARD KURTZ: Gail Shister, Rick Kaplan and some other CBS executives have said that there is a portion of the audience that may still not be comfortable getting their news from a woman at 6:30. Do you think that is a factor?

SHISTER: Unfortunately, yes. I do still think it’s a factor. As much as we’d like to think that as a culture, that we have progressed to the point where it doesn’t matter, I think that in news particularly, there is a sense that there is not the — I hate the “G” word, but the gravitas when a woman gives the news, as opposed to a man gives the news. You also have to understand that the average news viewer tends to be older, 60 and older, so they are more entrenched in the tradition. And the tradition, until Katie Couric came in September, was white, middle-aged men.

KURTZ: Right. Well, we think have you great gravitas on this show.

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