Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 28, 1990 TAG: 9005260363
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-6 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CARBONDALE, ILL. LENGTH: Short
The survey of 186 reporters who filed at least five stories in 1989 for ABC, CBS or NBC also found that only eight women were among the top 100 high-profile correspondents in 1989, compared with 15 in 1988.
"There is an assumption in American society that women are upwardly mobile in the workplace, but that's not the case in network television news," said Joe S. Foote, chairman of the radio-TV department at Southern Illinois University.
The reporters were ranked by the number of stories they had on the air during 1989.
Only three women ranked in the top 10, excluding news anchors: CBS's Lesley Stahl at No. 3, NBC's Andrea Mitchell at No. 4 and CBS's Rita Braver at No. 8.
There were no ABC women in the top 50. The highest-rated woman correspondent for ABC was Sheilah Kast at No. 65, and the next was Bettina Gregory at 96. "ABC grossly underused its women correspondents," Foote said.
ABC spokesman Scott Richardson declined to comment on the study until he had reviewed it, but he questioned the validity of the survey, noting that the network was the only one with three prime-time female news anchors.
by CNB