January 31, 2014Roger Ailes Phil GriffinChairman and CEO, Fox News President, MSNBC1211 Avenue of the Americas 30 Rockefeller PlazaNew York, NY 10036 New York, NY 10112David Rhodes Ben SherwoodPresident, CBS News President, ABC News524 West 57th Street 47 West 66th StreetNew York, NY 10019 New York, NY 10023Deborah Turness Jeff Zucker President, NBC News President, CNN30 Rockefeller Plaza 10 Columbus CircleNew York, NY 10112 New York, NY 10019Dear Mr. Ailes, Mr. Griffin, Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Sherwood, Ms. Turness, and Mr. Zucker:We are writing to express our deep concern regarding the overall lack of gender diversity on Sundaymorning political talk shows throughout 2013. These programs enjoy a large and diverse viewer base and arean important part of the public debate about issues that affect women's lives. With male guests vastlyoutnumbering female guests on Sunday morning broadcasts, women lose out in shaping the nationaldiscourse, and your viewers miss important points of view. A report published this week by
Media Matters for America
, analyzed Sunday shows on your networks, including ABC's
This Week with George Stephanopoulos
, CBS'
Face the Nation with BobSchieffer
, Fox Broadcasting Co.'s
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace
, NBC's
Meet the Press with David Gregory
, CNN's
State of the Union with Candy Crowley
, and MSNBC's
Up
and
Melissa Harris-Perry
. Thereport found that overall gender diversity on the broadcast shows and CNN was lacking, with men making upmore than 70 percent of the guests on each program. By contrast, MSNBC reached near parity, hostingwomen 43 percent of the time. When it came to one-on-one interviews, the ratios were even more one-sidedtoward men, with men receiving at least 85 percent of the solo interview time on all of the broadcast shows
and on CNN.There are qualified women to speak on issues affecting all Americans, including national security,economic growth, climate change, education and many others. But when it comes to reproductive health,equal pay, and other subjects disproportionately affecting women, it becomes increasingly imperative thatSunday political talk shows reflect our democracy. This is particularly important since these showsfrequently set the tone for how these topics are covered later in the week.We urge you to take action in the short term to correct this oversight in booking guests, and wehope you will take greater action in the future to ensure that Sunday political talk shows are the place for discussions and debate that more accurately reflect the demographics of our diverse nation. We are glad tomeet with you to offer constructive solutions to change these numbers.Sincerely,
Bobbie Ann Brinegar, MSWExecutive Director OWL - The Voice of Midlife and Older WomenJulie BurtonPresidentWomen's Media Center Ariel DoughertyNational Director Media Equity Collaborative Áine DugganPresidentNational Council for Research on WomenJaclyn FriedmanExecutive Director Women, Action & the Media (WAM!)Kim GandyPresident and CEONational Network to End Domestic ViolenceJessica González-RojasExecutive Director National Latina Institute for Reproductive HealthLisa GravesExecutive Director Center for Media & Democracy & ALECExposed.orgNancy Gruver Founder New Moon GirlsHeidi Hartmann, PhDPresidentInstitute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR)Mary Kay HenryInternational PresidentService Employees International Union (SEIU)Ilyse HoguePresidentNARAL Pro-Choice AmericaJo Ellen Kaiser Executive Director The Media ConsortiumJanet Kopenhaver Washington RepresentativeFederally Employed Women (FEW)Janet Bandows Koster CEO and Executive Director Association for Women in Science (AWIS)Shireen MitchellChair, National Council of Women's OrganizationsExecutive Officer, Digital SistersPresident, Community Technology Centers' NetworkErin Essenmacher PresidentWomen in Film & Video – DCJennifer Pozner Executive Director Women in Media & News (WIMN)Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner Executive Director and CEOMomsRisingTiffany ShackelfordExecutive Director Association of Alternative NewsmediaMonica SimpsonExecutive Director SisterSongEleanor SmealPresidentFeminist Majority Foundation Ann StoneFounder and Chair Republicans for ChoiceKaren TeegardenCEO and PresidentUniteWomen.org ACTION