Photo: VAL WILMER AID. Possibly no reporters' wives, but certainly women journalists were among those who occupied the London Evening News in January 1978 and secured the right to reply to articles attacking lesbians who have babies by NUJ Equality Working Party war policy was war was not only just but winnable.
their wives march in demonstrations?
Apart from the giveaway that Post reporters were men, the remark is intersting because it offers an insight into that -OrOCesS waich goes some way to answering a question constantly being asked by supporters IN THE last years of the Vietnam war, when public opposition to the US government's becoming increasingly 'respectable', the American press also began to shift away from the official view that the At that time Ben Bradlee, executive editor of the Washington Post, complained to a colleague: 'We tell reporters not to march in a demonstration. But what can you do when of the Campaign for Press Freedom: dorse the values and views of do journalists en their employers and where do they draw the line editor, Catledge of the New the Times wrote that in hiring staff he wantec independent ercanve men. thoroughbreds... not the sori WIC -CoUlC Dossed . orowocdIe! had to make them do what I wanted don often by making them think i was what they wanted done. Priorities That statement is sufficiently contradictory to explain why it often is that journalists believe themselves be completely objective when their work, founded on selec tivity, reflects the priorities of particular types of people These an ighlight an important issue for press that of and how news Collen values and editorial policies are created and adhered to It is easy enough to argue Latne current system ownership of the pr source of justict pat pelalcu the Hewspapcls DUI Wier to questions such 'Why does the TUC omen's Conference c and ther only of a nature? the answer 1 To deal with problems like that, discussion has to rang Wlac concern right of reply or i ke the Bast of alternatives the desirability of a labour daily How different would the final product be? Beliefs Very little is known by th beliefs o ourllalst. nature of their work Journalists themselves have a need Time Out for reassurance so strong that the whys and herefores of their craft are rarely debated critically.
So it is significant that dissent amon! from that group naso ae euraT group arcad employers prejudices It is easier for male jour talISTS to identify the values of male employers, to 'thoroughbred •1 urne. Catledge Women, on the othe WLULC.
lana. nave never had avie of the pald n tat aLOnaTIG foothold Quite apart from wHal mcko women are fit for, there is the simple fact that women not men. Women The increasing number of voo sp urn e ue Bie identify with each other and with women outside the industry, has given rise ti a new spirit of dissent the sexism of conventional, male-created Journalism: dis sent which affects many othe arcas ur Journalsuc oracuice Discussions about sexism that ideology most popularly recognised in the . page three pin-up but one which involves VUL PECAILICS OL OMISS OT condescension and distortion l aisc maly Issue, central to press freedom and the role o journalists in society. • Gansersh iliances, ownership allegiances, trade mcson, social, as well as industrial, relations all these have to be considered once objection to sexism is voiced It is important therefore Pu Đ the von B gi put as much emphasis nature nalists as on straight employ HICHA HaLLC. SuGi as eola opportunity in recruitmen and and abortion rights, or provi WaLCilL sions for working parents like CreeRes Equal There is no guarantee that equal numbers men and the workplace will U TOT JUANMDA1 TONhA TIDATTY emale public in the pages of the press, but men and women different nave periences and it may be mor I women in their owi work is, as lumnel Calledgt put it, 'what they want done too Indeed, the fact that young womcu tamees very much the minority in provinoffices now be utspap crushed only tem porarily in their dissent editors sayllg. don t agree with me, you have never make a ou malst is an sense and indication of how that proces: of endorsement can be inter TUDICe for women minority groups SUPUULL TIOSI suuogillg agamst sexism anc racist ane enfranchisemen tions the powerfu ary anch lo lask.
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