Nor did Couric seem concerned that only whites attended the meeting. Even though over 30 percent of the country consists of minorities, the all-white nature of the "major journalists" gave Couric no case of heartburn. But the shortage of skirt-wearing colleagues did frustrate her.
For what it's worth, of all the local news anchor chairs in the country, women hold 57 percent of those jobs. While men still dominate the position of news director, women account for 55 percent of executive producer positions.
There was, however, a huge issue of "unfairness" in the room. Although Couric sits in last place in the ratings of the Big Three, she earns a reported $15 million a year. Gibson, in second place, clocks in at a reported $7 million. NBC's Williams, who sits atop the ratings, reportedly makes $4 million per year.
Do the math. For the week of Jan. 15, Williams attracted 10.25 million viewers, which comes out to a salary of $.39 per set of eyeballs. Gibson, in second place with 9.5 million viewers that week, earns $.74 per viewer. And Ms. Couric, who had a whopping 2.45 million fewer viewers than the first-place Williams? At her $15 million per year salary, with her 7.8 million viewers, CBS pays her $1.92 per viewer! This means the third-place Couric gets five times the amount of money per viewer than does the first-place Williams. (Memo to Brian: Fire your agent.)
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., criticized the severance package of Home Depot's ex-CEO as an example of "income inequality." The National Organization for Women claims that women earn $.75 on the dollar for the exact same work as men. But in the case of the networks, each of the Big Three runs a half-hour nightly newscast, which, minus commercials, comes out to approximately 22 minutes. Assuming the anchors spend about the same amount of off-air time in preparing the newscast, their time spent at work comes out the same. So, for putting in the same time, for the same work, Gibson and Williams get shafted.
We can remedy this "inequality" in one of three ways. First, make the male colleagues wear skirts to provide company for Couric. Second, give the men raises. Or third, given her "exorbitant" salary, fire Couric.
Now we understand the lack of top female journalists -- they are just too darned expensive.