Word: craft
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...first glance, the decision seemed a major victory for the proposition that women deserve to be treated as more than set decoration: a jury of four women and two men found that Metromedia, Inc.* had defrauded Craft by hiring her as a journalist and then attempting to make her over as a camera presence. The jurors also recommended that U.S. District Judge Joseph Stevens find Metromedia guilty of sex discrimination. Said Jury Foreman Kenneth Green: "We hope we have helped women in broadcasting." The case took on a symbolic importance for women's groups, who contributed to help Craft...
...executives and law scholars, however, contend that Craft's victory reflected unusual circumstances, and that it will have limited impact on stations' legal freedom to change personnel. The importance of the case, they said, was that it prompted ethical debate about TV's treatment of women and other issues: the rise of show-business values and market research over news judgment; the role of consultants in shaping a newscast's style, cast and content; the concept of anchors as personalities rather than reporters. Those trends started in local news, but are spreading to the networks, according...
Concerns about appearance and manner may have a place in a medium that uses personalities to attract viewers to the news. But TV executives around the country said that in Craft's case, the show business considerations were insensitively handled and tinged with sexism. Said General Manager Monte Newman of Chicago's WMAQ: "The people in charge were incredibly dumb." When Craft negotiated with KMBC for the $35,000 job in 1980, she told the station's management that she had resented being "made over" as a bee-stung-lipped, bleached blond for a previous post...
...During Craft's eight-month tenure, KMBC'S news ratings rose from second place to first in the six-station market, which is the nation's 27th largest. Nonetheless, the station hired consultants to test her appeal further. Perhaps the most damaging evidence against Metromedia was an audio tape of a research discussion in which Steve Meacham, a Media Associates employee, said to a group of local viewers, "Let's spend 30 seconds destroying Christine Craft. Is she a mutt...
...anchormen will be a relatively youthful 46. Says ABC News President Roone Arledge: "It is a fact of life-when your face is out there as your byline, cosmetic factors are involved." Arledge's attitude seems ingrained in TV executives across the country, and in audiences. Even Crusader Craft does not expect much change. She sums up: "This is a victory for civil rights, but I have no illusions that it will make a huge difference in TV news." - By William A. Henry...