How the #MeToo Movement is Impacting America's Newsrooms
At the helm of the top media outlets in the nation are all men. The Washington Post's Media Columnist Margaret Sullivan explains the conditions facing women in news, and ways to close the gender gap in newsroom mastheads.
"I think there are more women in powerful positions in media than there ever have been before," says Sullivan. "The problem is at the very, very top of those very powerful news organizations it's pretty rare for a woman to have broken through."
Men wrote 52 percent of bylined news articles and opinion pieces about reproductive issues in the nation’s 12 most widely circulated newspapers and news wires. Meanwhile, women penned 37 percent, according to the 2017 Women's Media Center Report. Men won 84 percent of a century’s worth of Pulitzer Prizes, while women won only 16 percent according to Women's Media Center.
On how the #MeToo movement has impacted newsrooms, Sullivan says, "to say this whole thing gone too far is really misguided." She goes on to say, "I think what's really going to rule the day is that this major reckoning we're having in our society and how extremely important it is and how it was brought about by courageous journalists and courageous women."
Natalie Fertig, federal cannabis policy reporter at Politico Pro, joins Cheddar News to discuss a new YouGov poll that looks at how Americans feel about marijuana and politics.
A virtual gathering in the online space, Decentraland, of Elvis Presley impersonators is looking to grab the Guinness World Record for most Elvis impersonators in one place after the record-keeping org recently approved the use of avatars as stand-ins for people.
A powerful winter storm hit the Northeast over the weekend leaving 100,000 New Yorkers in the dark as well as snowfall up to 30.9 inches in parts of Massachusetts. The nor'easter hit with blizzard conditions of wind speed and poor visibility.
After classic rocker Neil Young demanded removal of his music from Spotify over vaccine misinformation coming from The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the platform made the decision to take down Young's songs and continue supporting Rogan with whom they have an exclusive contract. The move touched off a firestorm of controversy, leading to responses from both the streaming service and the podcasting host. Evan Nierman, CEO of Red Banyan Crisis PR, joined Cheddar to break down the latest on the fracas. "I think when [Spotify] initially said, we're not going to be commenting on that, that was a silly move because guess what? They did end up commenting about it, and nine times out of 10, when an organization says they're not going to be issuing a comment, they ultimately do," Nierman noted.
The 1999 cult classic "Fight Club" has been given a very different ending in China — and this time, the authorities win. Cheddar News speaks with Joan Solsman, senior media reporter at CNET who breaks down how China is using films for political messaging.
NFT art platform TRLab recently raised $4.2 million in funding. TRLab launched just last year but says its platform focused on NFT curation and distribution is growing quickly. The company hopes to bridge traditional and digital art worlds and help artists explore NFTs as an emerging medium. TRLab co-founder and chairwoman Xin Li-Cohen and co-founder and CEO Audrey Ou joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
