CUNY Panelist Compares Al Sharpton and Hillary Clinton
From left: author Keli Goff, HuffPo’s Amanda Michel, New York Times writer Jodi Kantor, senior producer at MTV News Liz Nord. Photo courtesy of MaryAnneRussell.com
Last night, Jere Hester, director of NYCity News Service, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, led a panel discussion on “2008 Election: The Ultimate Communications Case Study” at CUNY’s new spot on West 40th Street. Hosted by New York Women in Communications, not surprisingly nearly all of the 75 attendees were women who happily greeted one another over plates of veggies, hummus, and cheese.
The four panelists, Keli Goff, author of Partycrashing: How the Hip-Hop Generation Declared Political Independence; Jodi Kantor, a political journalist for The New York Times; Amanda Michel, project director of Huffpost’s OffTheBus; and Liz Nord, senior producer at MTV News, who runs Street Team ’08, discussed the ever-changing form of media and the role of the Internet.
“For me, covering an election for MTV is super exciting because it’s such a youth-oriented election year,” Nord said. Both she and Goff attributed this increased civic participation to dissatisfaction felt by a generation that’s grown up with the Iraq War and highly contested elections.
Kantor noted that young people are affecting older generations. She mentioned one example where a woman in Virginia was supporting Barack Obama because of the emails her son sent her. “This student was actually in control of what his mom was thinking,” she said in awe. Goff pointed out that polling doesn’t accurately reflect young people because they don’t have landlines and spend more time on the Internet.
Regarding citizen journalism, Ms. Kantor said The New York Times is less concerned with competition from people like Mayhill Fowler, than with how to increase revenue.
When it came to the issue of sexism and way the media portrayed Hillary Clinton lines were drawn.
“For what it’s worth, she certainly got a lot of scrutiny, but you can attribute that to the fact that she’s been a public person for 30 years,” Hester said prior to the panel. “She’s blazed a new role and it’s extraordinary story how she went from First Lady to senator of NY. I don’t know if I can say fair or unfair, but I do think she received a great deal of scrutiny.”
“There was blatant sexism across many media companies,” said Nord, who pointed out that she was at the event because there weren’t any female executives to send to the panel. She covered Hillary’s event at Baruch College and said, “It was 80 percent men in the pit, and two men from well-established networks were making inappropriate remarks. Journalism is still a male-dominated field and there are still good ol’ boys in the field who are sexist.”
Goff noted that Hillary is a polarizing figure. “Having a conversation on sexism through the lens of Hillary as a presidential candidate is like looking at racism through the lens of Al Sharpton as a presidential candidate. She’s someone to love and someone to hate.”
“No one is a perfect test case,” Kantor agreed. “I’m much more interested in what is said in newsrooms or at office desks.”
— Louise McCready
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