By Eric Deggans
St. Petersburg Times (a Poynter-owned publication)
Published: 4/18/06
Excerpt:
It was, Meredith Vieira admitted, a quandary that brought her to tears.
While considering whether she wanted to replace Katie Couric as co-host of NBC's Today show, Vieira found herself crying over the harsh realities of the schedule. Namely, an early-morning start which guaranteed she would never see her children, Ben, 17, Gabriel, 14, and Lilly, 13, wake up for school. ...
The New York Times detailed how Couric polled her two daughters Ellie, 14, and Carrie, 10 and parents on her job options before taking the flagship anchor post at CBS. ABC's Elizabeth Vargas told the Washington Post when she was appointed World News Tonight co-anchor: "Being a mom is the biggest, most important role in my entire life."
Network news anchor jobs - whose occupants' lives are dictated by breaking news -- have never been known to offer work-family balance. ...
Jill Geisler, an instructor on leadership issues at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies (which owns the St. Petersburg Times), noted that in a survey of 750 journalists of both genders last year, Poynter discovered more than half reported working long hours, not taking all their vacation time and seriously considered leaving journalism.
"I had respondents saying, 'I can't talk about my family at work' or 'They roll their eyes when I talk about family,' " added Geisler, who was news director at television station WITI in Milwaukee for 20 years while raising two children. "On the one hand, there's great news that women are bringing their families into the conversation . . . and authority figures in journalism are working mothers. The question is . . . whether that trickles down to other areas in journalism."
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