“The Time Warner Summit: Politics 2008,” held at the Time Warner headquarters in New York City and co-sponsored with CNN, was a corporate branded event with big name heavy-hitters taking on questions about media, news, and the election. After attending both days of the conference, it reinforced my belief that digital media was the future for pushing out women’s stories, concerns, and dialogues.
There were many prominent women featured. Campbell Brown, CNN Anchor, moderated the opening keynote roundtable comprised of four men. Candy Crowley, senior political correspondent at CNN, spoke during the Media Power vs. Political Power session. One of the most dynamic speakers over the two days was Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent for CNN. Her persona and delivery style popped during the discussion with colleagues that included Wolf Blitzer and Fareed Zakaria and former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke.
Whether you consider women and minorities successfully enmeshed in the total media picture
or their specificity overlooked, depends upon your point of view. But the conference was a definitive contrast to presentation I recently attended at St. John’s University, which totally focused on the intersectionality of race and gender with the election story. There, a majority of the speakers were law professors presenting academic work.
The Time Warner symposium included one panel entitled Women and the 2008 Election: Playing Politics with Gender–Media, Candidates and the Majority Vote. Led by Lisa Witter, Fenton Communications COO and co-founder of SheSource — a “brain trust” of female experts — six women explored women as swing voters and the cultural phenomenon of Sarah Palin’s candidacy. In reference to Michelle Obama, they also discussed whether you could be an outspoken black woman without being described as “angry” by media pundits.
As Witter pointed out while speaking to a full room of women — “Wish there were more you!” she joked to the sprinkling of men — 59 percent of primary voters were women. At the end of the discussion, Carol Jenkins, Women’s Media Center president, posed questions going forward for the media. She called for continued examination of “who is calling the shots, who is making the decisions, and who is missing from the picture.”
With the understanding that women do not getting their narratives adequately told — if told at all — the need for a fresh playing field is palpable. In the new media, women have an opportunity to create their own communities and their own brands. Whether on the left or right of the political spectrum, a mommy blogger or a political blogger, women are flooding the Internet. This was borne out by a BlogHer/Compass Partners survey found 36.2 million women were actively participating in blogs. Of women online, 53 percent were reading blogs, 37 percent were posting comments, and 28 percent were writing or updating blogs.
In recent weeks, the McCain campaign has been attacking ACORN, a widely respected voter registration organization, claiming ACORN knowingly participated in “voter fraud.” In reality, this is just another calculated attempt by the McCain campaign and the RNC to suppress new and marginalized voters.
* On a side note…There are already problems in Florida with voter suppression. I just heard this on our 11 o’clock news…
Because foreclosures are so high here, if your home has been foreclosed on, you can not use that address to vote. You must file papers with a new address, or not vote. The news report stressed, that anyone caught voting using an address from their foreclosed home, will be subject to arrest (3rd degree felony), and a $5,000 fine. The report is not mentioning that this form of intimidation is considered voter suppression, on the contrary, it is warning anyone who has not had their address changed, they better not attempt to vote. I was shocked, the news stations in Florida, are actually aiding in voter suppression.
Hi everybody. GREAT NEWS! Me and my daughter are going to the Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton Rally, in Orlando tomorrow. We both have press passes to cover the rally. Woo-hoo! How cool is that?
We will be live blogging and hopefully getting some video interviews from the press room.
The rally doesn’t start until 6pm, but, I plan on posting some of the “behind the scenes” stuff, throughout the day. This is the first time I am doing anything like this, so I’m not 100% sure what to expect.
Oh, and even though I’m somewhat new to the Twittering thing, I’ll be doing that too. You can tweet me at…
Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll get a chance to meet Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Either way, it’s gonna be quite the mother/daughter adventure. Well…That’s it for now, come back tomorrow and see how we’re making out.
Colin Powell Endorsing Barack Obama. See full video from Sunday’s Meet The Press…
What do you think? Are you influenced by Colin Powell’s endorsement? Do you think this endorsement will have an effect on the outcome of Election? Let me know what you think in comments.
Have you heard the latest phrase from the McCain-Palin stomp speech? It consists of two very powerful words. “I’m angry.” To place the statement in context, Palin has said, “There is anger about the dealings of insider lobbyists, anger about the greed of Wall Street, and there’s anger about the arrogance of the Washington elite, and there is anger about voter fraud.” McCain has himself said, “You’re angry and I’m angry too.”
However, the issue I have with the “angry” statement is this: What are all these angry people supposed to do with their anger? The election is not until November 4th. Until then, are folks to let their anger simmer until it boils over into something ugly? God forbid McCain actually loses the election— then what are they to do with their anger? Are they to do as some extremists in the McCain-Palin crowd have suggests when they shouted “Off with his head,” Kill him! Get him!?”
McCain may want to say that he is utterly appalled, and state that he totally rejects Congressman John Lewis’ reference to John Wallace, in his condemnation of McCain’s campaign rally etiquette. However, the fact is, if McCain refuses to fiercely and immediately— on-the-spot—denounce such statements that come from the crowd at his campaign rallies, he is inadvertently condoning them.
I believe that that Congressman John Lewis—in his statement that “McCain and Palin were sowing seeds of hatred and division”— was simply saying that to allow such unbridled anger and hatred to bubble up and fester is dangerous, and has the potential—if unchecked—to lead to violent acts on the part of some. The campaign has a responsibility to not incite it, allow it or condone it.
Like everyone else in America, I was waiting to see how the match up between Palin and Biden would transpire. Beyond the giddy atmosphere that was building (somewhat between a sporting event and a game show), was a deeper, darker space. It was a low, wide valley occupied by symbols and ambiguities of murky distinctions — the roles of gender and race in the 2008 election.
Those specific issues were discussed and debated at a two-day symposium at St. John’s University. As
I sat down to watch the two Vice-Presidential contenders, the presentations of the conference’s speakers reverberated in my head.
Presented by the university’s law school, there was a heavy representation of scholars focusing on media and law, election law, and legal theory. In addition to those emanating from the academic world, there was a cross section of journalists and activists.
Perspectives on Gender in the 2008 Elections; The Role of the Media in Shaping Perceptions of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the 2008 Elections; The Intersectionality of Race, Gender, Media, and the Political Process; A Dialogue on Legal Constructions of Race, Gender, and Identity in the 2008 Elections, were some of the panels which I attended.
The concerns that had been come up earlier in the election season got turned on their heads once again with the placement of Sarah Palin onto the McCain ticket. Charges of sexism, reverse sexism, populist feminism, anti-feminism — and permutations on the theme — were doled out in abundance. Prominent in the mix was the role of the media, both amplifying and exacerbating misconceptions to the public.
Here is some post debate media and blogger reaction. If you want to see what I thought, check out this link, that also has the full video of last night’s debate. I am very interested in what YOU thought. Who won? Who lost? Are you sick of hearing about “Joe” the plumber? Who do you feel will do better fixing our economy? What about health care, taxes, and jobs? Let me know what you think in comments.
The Sarah Palin Troopergate story has uncovered more about McCain’s VP pick than you might realize. Rachel Maddow does a great job at explaining the story and what it means to abuse power. I personally like her “alternate universe” analogy (it’s so m-theory). And, you gotta give her credit for calling “non-truths” what they really are…
It’s not even JUST Troopergate anymore. Housegate is moving in…
Remember back to the first week in September, when it seemed like every day there was a new “gate”? Actually, believe it or not, “Troopergate” used to be known as “Palingate” in Alaska because we naively believed there was only one. Oh, how innocent we were.
Since that long ago time, our naivete has fallen away, and “gates” have been springing up like mushrooms all over Alaska: Troopergate, babygate, bookgate, pastorgate…the list seemed endless. Add to that a whole host of more recent and harder to say “gates” – Leaving-your-town-in-debt-gate, collecting-per-diem-while-living-at-home-gate, charging-victims-for-rape-kits-gate, trying-to-rid-the-world-of-wolves-and-polar-bears-gate, and we’ve been busy people. We’ve been focusing on John McCain’s I-didn’t-vet-my-running-mate-so-I’m-going-te-let-everyone-else-do-it-gate.
But now, a brand new “gate” surfaces. I present “House Gate”. There will be more digging on this one in the days to come, but here’s what we know now. – ready full post here
Palin omits Obama’s “terrorist ties” from her rally speeches in the spirit of stopping negative attacks. It lasts until Palin tells crowds Obama does not want women to be “punished with a baby” when addressing his abortion stance. But she does follow it up by saying “it is not mean spirited”
. . .
Glamoracy asks if women would “hate” Palin if she was a liberal. Let me answer on my behalf – if she was for any form of women’s equality (ERA!) , did not make rape victims pay for their rape kits, did not say “she tolerates” when she speaks of gay rights, recognized the need to improve our nations health care, stopped implying Obama is UnAmerican because of propaganda that failed to work a year ago, could name a Supreme Court case or a paper she read each day I would not be as scared to have her as number two.
Answering the question, Where are all the women political bloggers? Well, if you are here, you have found them. We are dedicated to giving women bloggers a voice, starting with our list of over 500 women political bloggers. And now, in addition to guest bloggers, and our growing community, we will also feature regular contributing editors.
“The Time Warner Summit: Politics 2008,” held at the Time Warner headquarters in New York City and co-sponsored with CNN, was a corporate branded event with big name heavy-hitters taking on questions about media, news, and the election. After attending both days of the conference, it reinforced my belief that digital media was the future for pushing out women’s stories, concerns, and dialogues.
