Magazine Discovers Women in Pentagon

Oh my God, there's women in the Pentagon! And U.S. News & World Report is here to reveal it:

For the first time ever, about a third of the historically male Pentagon press corps is female. The latest addition, Fox News Channel's Jennifer Griffin, brings the number of regular female reporters to nine (including our very own Anna Mulrine.)

I'm not quite sure where the magazine is getting its numbers from: there's a lot more than nine women accredited as media reps at the Pentagon. Oh yes, they're only counting the gaggle that goes to the regular Pentagon press briefings. Anyhow, who cares how many women cover the Pentagon?

But there is a difference in coverage. "Women," says Griffin, a mother of two, "have a certain layer of empathy and emotional intelligence that they bring to a beat like this." Adds Starr, who devotes coverage to injured soldiers: "You must show the human dimension."

Yeah, we all know that men don't have empathy (and what the heck is "emotional intelligence"?). Anyhow, as the article goes on....

*There have been few hurdles. "I've never ever experienced any sexism from the military," says ABC's Martha Raddatz, a war correspondent who also covers the White House. "I don't feel the least bit constrained," adds Starr. *

It's funny that the issue of sexism in the military is raised in the brief article, which doesn't mention sexism in journalism (since presumably, it's media companies that hire and assign women to the Pentagon, and are thus responsible for any skewed numbers).

Here's another question: how many African-American journalists have news organizations designated to the regular Pentagon press corps?