The Daily Show's Woman Problem

Everyone should definitely check out the article included in the title of this post which highlights many of the inequities mostly on the production side of The Daily Show.

While from what I have read, The Daily Show has a better record of having women as guests -- according to the article above the behind the scenes treatment leaves something to be desired.

I think this article points to the need for a shift in the culture of media production, and not just the output. This was an issue that I have witnessed first hand in my experiences with other media entities -- you can sometimes have a number of women who are there and working, but the culture of the organization may not be conducive to listening to their voices. Of course, at times, this is all centered around one individual. The article above is interesting in its indictment of Stewart as a man who leads The Daily Show with "a joyless rage" off the screen -- far from what the audience sees every evening.

Clearly, as the article indicates, the double standard that impacts women in politics and other industries, can seep into the political (albeit satirical) reporting as well. Although not everyone agrees that it is a double standard -- which brings up the question, what can improve the situation? How do you shift the culture?
Often we see that adding more women is posed as a solution but - more women do not necessarily make the problem better as the article indidcates:

"But two female writers do not a female-friendly environment make.

"The writers want to be able to write for a female reporter — but not too female," says Weedman. She says it was hard to figure out what that meant exactly. "I would pitch something like, can I do a segment on women's self help or on fitness. And they didn't want anything like that…Ed Helms got to have his mole removed [in a segment], but they weren't going to do, a women goes to the gynecologist. They felt like at the time it wasn't their audience.""

What do others think of this?