WAMC: 51% Show # 996 (2008-08-14)

51 % The Women's Perspective

51% Show # 996

(2008-08-14)

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ALBANY, NY (WAMC) - BILLBOARD - Susan Barnett(:36) (Music Out)
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Not so long ago, it was considered a given that women in broadcasting could expect to be out of a job once they'd passed forty. Now CNN's Candy Crowley and many other veteran women broadcasters are staying on the job as long as they can keep up the pace. One of the standard bearers for women in the news is Barbara Walters. She's outlasted many of her contemporaries. She spoke with Joe Donohue about how her career started...and how it's continued.

7:45 Walters- Donohue

Barbara Walters' new autobiography is called Audition and it's published by Alfred K-nopf.

Coming up on 51%... Do women in the media still face a double standard? We'll talk with an analyst who wonders if what is considered a scandal for a famous woman in the news might be considered a big 'so what' for a man and get some first hand opinions on what pressures come with success.

If you missed part of our show, you can listen to 51% anytime. Just download our podcast at wamc.org or call 1-800-323-9262 to order a CD - you'll need to know the program number. This week's show is #996.

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Barbara Walters' personal life was a pretty well kept secret for most of her career. And that seems to be the best way to get ahead for both men and women in broadcasting...pretend you live, breathe and eat your job.

Jessica Savitch was the network glamour girl in the 70s and 80s...eventually becoming the NBC nightly news anchor. She wrote a book called Anchorwoman...and appeared on the David Letterman show to talk about it...

5:30 Savitch

Savitch died in a car accident in 1983, her reputation already tarnished by charges of a drug problem and stormy personal relationships. Linda Lowen is the women's issues host of information website about.com. She sees many parallels between Savitch's career and current CBS chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan. Logan is a beautiful woman who's moved quickly up the network ladder. And up until now, she's claimed she has no life outside of her job. But the tabloids are now jumping all over a story that the married but separated reporter had two affairs while working in Iraq...and one of them was with a married man who is now divorcing his wife to marry Logan. Plus Logan is pregnant. It's juicy, that's for sure. But should it be news? Lowen, the about.com host, has recently authored an editorial about Logan's situation she called She Doesn't Deserve This.

Lowen Barnett 8:00

Linda Lowen's women's issues pages and resources can be found at womensissues.about.com.

Today as part of the National Science Foundation's The Sounds of Progress project, producer Mary Darcy and narrator Kate Mulgrew profile Elizabeth Lee Hazen and Rachel Fuller Brown. Their collaboration led to a vaccine for pneumonia, and one of the first effective antifungal medications.

2:00 NSF #6 Hazen and Brown

If you'd like to find out more or hear more in this series, visit womeninscience.org, and click on The Sounds of Progress button.

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