Slamming Star-Tribune's "Chicken Little" coverage

City Pages, the alternative newspaper in Minneapolis, slammed a Star-Tribune article writtem by business reporter Aimee Blanchette that bemoaned the demise of the male TV anchor.

Beth Hawkins wrote, “How many decades has it been since statistics showing that men comprise a majority of anything has been news? And since when does holding 43 percent of a category of jobs make anybody endangered? Forty-three percent is almost half. Is it even statistically relevant?

“More missing-but-crucial context: With the exception of main newscast anchors in large markets, most of the jobs cited in this story are relatively low-wage. (There’s a term for it, guys: The pink-collar ghetto.) How many news directors are men? The very same Ball State professor quoted in this story decrying the wane of the male anchor probably knows. In 2002, he wrote about a 2 percent increase in their ranks–to 26 percent. A 2 percent increase–Baby, we really have come a long way. In the same survey, published by the Radio Television News Directors Association, he reports that women hold less than 39 percent of TV newsroom jobs.

“And if we’re in the driver’s seat, how come the substance of the 10 o’clock news is still dominated by women with pesky domestic conundrums and men with serious commentary on the major policies of our era?

Read more here.