Cokie Roberts doesn't believe that gender disparity on Sunday shows is a problem, stating, "there are plenty of women there."
If Cokie Roberts Doesn't Believe It, It Must Not Be True
April 9, 2014

Cokie Roberts is a typical beltway Villager, who's loyal to conventional wisdom about any topic she discusses and is the Queen of the "both sides do it," talking points. So when Media Matters released their findings on a gender diversity study that says women were on the Sunday talk shows about 28% of the time, while men filled the slots 72% of the time, she wasn't buying it.

Cokie Roberts said she was surprised to hear women comprised less than 30 percent of guests last year on Sunday morning broadcast political talk shows like her former program, ABC's This Week. But she did not believe that disparity was a problem, stating, "there are plenty of women there."

According to data compiled by Media Matters, the four major broadcast Sunday shows hosted men at least 72 percent of the time in 2013, with women guests making up less than 30 percent on each program.

"I didn't even notice it," Roberts said during an appearance at a bookstore in New Jersey Tuesday to promote her children's book, Founding Mothers, which is about the unsung women of early American history. "I'm surprised at that because there seem to be a lot more than there were when I started."

"It seems to me that the attempt is always to have a little of this, a little of that," she said. "Someone just has to balance whatever, whether it's a conservative slot that needs to be filled or a minority slot that needs to be filled. It's the luck of the draw how any given week goes."Still, she said the gender gap had not been apparent to her. "I haven't noticed it," she said. "I am surprised to have you even say it. It doesn't look that way to me. It is always better to have more women, but to me in thinking about the shows there are plenty of women there."

Cokie will defend the Establishment, every time.

You see, there aren't less woman on the Sunday talk shows than men because she didn't notice it. Case closed. But even if that was the case, it still isn't a problem because the attempt is always to have a little of this, a little of that.

Got it?

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