I thought we’d come a long way, baby, when Katie Couric was named to anchor the CBS Evening News.  So when ABC announced that Diane Sawyer would be taking the anchor chair at there, the former TV newscaster in me who always had to battle the ‘she can’t do that because she’s the girl’ argument, was excited.  Sawyer’s list of credentials is a mile long, including her gig at 60 Minutes.  I’ve never been a fan of  Sawyer’s manner of presentation, but there’s no doubt that she’s got the qualifications.  Yet, in spite of that, some have suggested that her years of experience aren’t enough and that Couric and Sawyer landed their gigs because they’re too mommy-like.

The critique is actually directed at the networks and not the anchors themselves.  But a conversation at the blog Feministing suggests that the networks are letting women down because Couric and Sawyer are too soft and maternal to be taken seriously. (FYI, Sawyer doesn’t have children).

I have no problem with people questioning whether news networks are choosing the best qualified people to sit behind the anchor desk.  And, of course, there are probably many good choices that could have been made for either network.  But do we really have to go down the road of wondering whether someone is in their job because they are “mommy-like?”

I guess I’m troubled by the whole newsmommy discussion because it serves no purpose other than to have women characterizing other women in a diminutive way that not-so-subtly suggests that we should act more like men to succeed.  While the criticism is ultimately about what kind of woman network and cable executives want to put behind a news desk, when we blithely toss about the “mommy” word, it’s just like a pat on the head that says, “Oh, isn’t she cute wanting to be a news anchor,” while ignoring their more than worthy credentials.

And I’m not the only one bothered by this.  Shannon at Undecided blog laments:

But really, aren’t we beyond all this? What’s with the use of the word “mommy” in that context–as if it’s a synonym for airhead or lightweight?

…

What will it take for us to stop judging each other and get on the same team? To stop reaching for the shards of shattered glass from those ceilings our sisters have worked so hard to crack and using them as weapons against each other, rather than sweeping them up, admiring the fact that we might be able to make it through a little easier, and getting on with our own lives and the ceilings we’ll inevitably face?

As Amanda Fortini pointed out in her column at Salon:

A 40-year veteran, Sawyer is no stranger to hard news; she has interviewed, among many other political and cultural figures, Saddam Hussein, Ahmadinejad, Antonin Scalia and every president (plus first wives Nancy and Hillary) since George H.W. Bush. The New York Times reported that when she interviewed Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley back in 1995, she prefaced her queries about their sex life with this slightly perturbed admission: ‘I didn’t spend my life as a serious journalist to ask these kinds of questions.’

Aside from being annoyed at yet another instance of someone creating a word that suggests that women who are mothers are somehow inherently less capable because we’re busy being all soft and nice (nine-year-old PunditGirl might have a word or two to say on that one!), it’s time to take a moment to admit that the good interview isn’t always about shouting or pounding your fists on the table.

As any good interviewer knows (whether it be in news or law!), effective questioning isn’t usually about jumping in for the kill — it’s about the set up.  It’s doing your homework,  taking the time to lay a foundation, to ask the seemingly innocuous and, perhaps silly, questions first, and then nicely, gently (no big, sudden movements), move in for the big questions.

These are skills Couric and Sawyer clearly have.  So I think it’s fair to ask — why aren’t we more focused on pointing out the professional achievements of these, and other women, especially someone as overly-qualified as Sawyer, rather than talking about whether a woman with maternal qualities (or not) should be the face of authority?  I’m hard-pressed to come up with a good answer.

And while we’re on the subject, I can’t help asking — who’s your “newsdaddy?”

There’s still a pretty big elephant in the room that many have been ignoring when it comes to this topic –how families, and children in particular, are struggling to stay afloat and stay together until their financial fortunes turn. But that’s changed with the launch of the Children of the Recession series by Katie Couric at the CBS Evening News. I was lucky enough to participate in a conference call with many other bloggers, mostly from the SVMoms group, to talk with Katie and her producers about how this project came about, how they decided what stories to cover and to ask for our input on future story ideas for this ongoing series.

Katie told us that CBS reporters have found that emergency rooms around the country are seeing an increase in cases of abuse and neglect, families are buying less expensive foods for their tables — cheaper food often means more fattening food which isn’t good for a country with too many obese children — and families with formerly stable jobs like professors and accountants becoming homeless. Those are just a few of the dire stories they are finding and reporting on that show the real impact of George Bush’s economic legacy.

These aren’t just stories for the sake of finding stories to fill air time. Katie and her producers are interested in telling them as a way to help make real change and to grow grassroots efforts to help families in need until they are back on their feet. Interestingly, Katie said she hasn’t felt this proud of her work in a long time and hopes that by beginning to tell the stories of families in crisis, that we can all take action to expose the problems with not only the economy, but also with systems that can’t handle the numbers of children who need help.

Katie acknowledged that CBS (most of the network’s news shows are doing stories for the series) needs to stay committed and keep working on Children of the Recession if they are truly going to have a positive impact. By the way she and her team sounded on the phone, I think that’s a commitment they’re going to keep.

Of course, it would have been nice to be able to have this kind of blogger chat with Katie in person like we did about a year ago, but it was fascinating that she would take the time to pick our brains about what’s going on in our communities and to see how her team could incorporate that into their coverage.

Have any stories or anecdotes you think she should know about? Or programs or efforts that are helping people in your communities? Let me know in a comment and I’ll E-mail them to her producers! If some blogger ideas help create a news story that changes things for just one family, that would be a good day’s work.

Here’s a little taste:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Not a lot of detail in that answer. But whatever Palin does, or does not, say I hope it will be instructive for voters who are still weighing whether Palin can step in to the Oval Office if she has to.

Yes, as far as the Today Show is concerned we’re a group with quotes. Or air quotes anyway.

We’re inscrutable. We have strange and mysterious ways! We’re a bunch of ka-RAY-zee wimmins doing this new weird thing, all techy and Gen Y-like.

And, after watching the Today Show segment that sprang from what seemed like a thoughtful blogger “round table,” it turns out that, at least in the journalistic words of new Today Show co-host Kathie Lee Gifford, we’re just a bunch of moms who “yap” about diapers and preschools on the web instead of at the playground.

(Pssst. Kathie Lee. Don’t call Arianna Huffington a mommy blogger. I’m pretty sure she can take you out).

So why am I venting about this? I wasn’t involved in the show and no one talked about my record as an alleged duck thief, so why do I care what they said about Kristen and Mir and Jill and Dooce? Obviously, by implication it’s not just about them — it’s about all of us and how, once again, women’s efforts to be a part of the larger societal conversation get marginalized.

More proof that the MSM doesn’t get it. Women who wield blogs and computers!? We’re just SOOooo confusing to them!!!

There’s at least one exception, though.

Former Today Show host and current CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, and her producers, get it. And that could be an ingredient that Katie can use to her benefit as more and more people talk about what she’ll be doing for a living in a few months. She’s figured out that there’s something to be gained by trying to engage this new feminist act, rather than judge us by a particular topic we may write about on any given day.

It’s not that hard, really. There are millions of us out here doing what corporate trainers would call networking and relationship building. And we’re a demographic, but we’re a lot more than that.

We’re women who have been denied a voice in the main stream media for generations and we’re finding a way around it. Don’t want us on your op-ed pages? That’s OK — we’ll start our own. And people will find us. And listen to us. Really.

Even though only a handful bloggers who happen to be mothers are making a living at this blogging thing, it will happen for more us soon enough because marketers and advertisers love demographics. If readers are here and not there, it will happen. So, producers at the Today Show, you might want to re-think how you describe us.

We’ve got blogs that are about a lot more than talking about our children, and we’re not afraid to use them.

Plus, there’s that whole world domination thing.

Katie, you see, is a blogging newbie. Yes, she has her CBS blog, but that’s a bit different from what many of us do out here.

So, she had loads of questions about why a group of professional, educated mothers would spend their time writing about their lives and their opinions on the web.

It’s a fair query. It’s not like we don’t have a few other things to do, like work, take care of our families and try to figure out how to stay on top of answering all those questions our children come up with at the most interesting times.

So after mulling her question over, especially after spending the rest of the weekend with some other incredible women, I realized this:

I have to write my blog.

I need a place to write about the things I feel strongly about. Things I wish there were more conversations about, especially among women. After having had a taste of getting paid to write about my views, I realized there is amazing power in putting those words out there.

I know this word gets used a lot, but it’s empowering to be able to do it and say it and take it without having to get permission from publishers and producers and editors.

This is a place where we can make our voices heard without anyone asking the question of whether our thoughts and political views are worthy of being made public.

On the opinion pages of newspapers, women make up less than 20% of opinion columnists. Political talk show guests are still mostly comprised of a bunch of white guys mulling over the week’s events. Using our blogs to talk about the issues that are important to us as women gets us closer to taking our place at the table.

Blogging is the new feminist act.

By writing about ourselves, our lives and our opinions on blogs that are becoming more widely read every day, we have taken the power that many of us have been waiting for others to give us. There is huge strength in that.

Don’t believe me? Over 36 million women are blogging today. That’s almost one-fourth of the women in the United States. Half of the bloggers in America are women.

Yeah, we’ve got blogs and we’re not afraid to use them.

So, there’s my answer. Maybe by using this forum to express ourselves, something will take hold and we’ll start to make inroads at the other places where we desperately need more double-XX-ers.

A girl can dream, can’t she?

Photo by PunditMom.

After meeting with Katie and so many of her great staffers last week, I have been thinking about the similarities between her, the first solo woman network news anchor, and Hillary Clinton, the first “viable” woman candidate for President.

As I read Howard Kurtz’s article, I realized I wasn’t the only one noticing some parallels:

“She is trailing in a highly competitive contest against her male rivals, is occasionally covered in a condescending way and faces predictions that she’ll be forced out of the race.

Katie Couric understands what Hillary Clinton is going through.

‘I identify with her to a certain extent because we share a gender,’ the CBS anchor says. ‘I’m sensitive to coverage that can be very subtly stacked against her, maybe a headline that has a little more snarkiness about her. . . . I understand that kind of coverage because I’ve experienced it myself.’ “

So as I wondered a little while ago, how are we ever going to get to a point where we are ready for a woman president if many think we’re not ready for a woman solo nightly network news anchor?

As I’ve been letting this roll around my brain, it occurred to me that it’s not a matter of whether we’re ready for women in ultimate positions of authority. The problem is that so many hold women to higher and different standards than men who have the same qualifications. And when women are perceived to have fallen short, the attacks aren’t far behind.

Or has she succeeded and people are just ignoring it? The ratings for the CBS Evening News aren’t all that different from NBC and ABC. Could we call that a success?? I would.

We need Katie to stay put AND to succeed on the terms that others have set because her job is still viewed by so many as a ‘man’s job.’

Just like the Presidency.

We need the traction of some high level female success so that starts getting the media attention, rather than the stories about women “opting out,” a nice phrase coined to get away from saying “failed.”

I’m not trying to put pressure on my new “BFF” Katie, but I really hope she’ll stay around for a while. Things aren’t looking good for Hillary Clinton at the moment and we sure could use some high profile examples of strong, successful women if we’re ever going to get a real shot at putting some estrogen into the Oval Office, let alone the major news organizations that shape our view of women’s success.

(Katie Couric photo courtesy of Kimberly at Petroville, my new karaoke partner in crime! Karaoke photo courtesy of Mom-101. Yeah, she was there, too!)

A no-brainer, especially for someone like me who spent years in the broadcast news business. No, I never made it to Katie’s level, but it is still in my blood. So getting a chance to meet with her and pick her brain about her views was like offering PunditGirl a sleepover on a school night — a gift so unexpected that you would never even entertain the thought!

I didn’t have a chance to get her views on the presidential campaign, but maybe next time I’m in town??

But I did get to add my two cents to the discussion, hoping to get across that plenty of us out here in the blogosphere are much more than “mommy bloggers.” Sure, lots of us happen to be moms, but we’ve got more to say and write about than what time the playdates are and whose birthday party is this weekend.

One small step for mommy bloggers, one giant leap for woman-kind!

Photo courtesy of fellow MOMocrat Beth B. and CBS.