Barbara Walters (1929- )

by Christopher Peterson

Today, I want to begin the discussion of more contemporary journalists with one of the most popular women still working today, Barbara Walters. In her youth, Walters became accustomed to meeting celebrities—her father was a Broadway producer and the Entertainment Director of a Las Vegas casino. She credits this contact with her calmness and poise around prominent figures that allows her to conduct her famous interviews. She attended prestigious private schools in New York City and later earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Sarah Lawrence College. Immediately after college, Walters began a career as a publicist before securing as position as a CBS News writer. She quickly became a writer and researcher for The Today Show at NBC. Even in the 1960s, Walters says that she had difficulties because of her gender. The Today Show eventually allowed her to report lighter news but refused to give her more “hard news” assignments, claiming that audiences did not take women as seriously. After a year, Walters began conducting her own reports and interviews, laying the foundation for her reputation as a formidable journalist. When the show hired Frank McGee as a host, however, he refused to recognize Walters as a co-host and insisted that he ask questions first during interviews. NBC officially declared Walters the show’s first female co-host in 1974, after McGee’s death. Walters again faced complications in 1976, when she became a co-anchor on ABC Evening News. Her partner on the show, Harry Reasoner, held a thinly veiled disdain for Walters, due partly to her sex and partly to her mere presence. In 1979, Walters began a 25-year tenure with ABC’s 20/20, the program that made her famous. On the show, Walters continued conducting the emotional and probing interviews that earned her attention even on The Today Show. She now possesses a reputation for identifying the most important issues in an interviewee’s life and obtaining information that others have overlooked. While some criticize her for asking “softball” questions, these inquiries generally carry a significant emotional undertone, prompting the interviewee to discuss sensitive information. Throughout her career on 20/20 and on her Barbara Walters Specials, she spoke with some of the most intriguing figures around the world, including former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, former Egyptian President Anwar Al Sadat, and Monica Lewinsky. Walters continues to serve as an inspiration for women around the world and a proponent of women’s issues and concerns as a co-host on The View. The show, which Walters co-created, aims to bring together women from various generations, cultures, and backgrounds to discuss current events and pressing matters.

Bianna Golodryga (1978- )

Golodryga and her husband, Peter Orszag

Pushing the boundaries of what female journalists can accomplish, Bianna Golodryga has become one of the most prominent business and finance correspondents in the nation, an area historically dominated by men. Born in Moldova, a small country in Eastern Europe, Golodryga moved with her family to the United States as a child and studied at The University of Texas at Austin. Shortly after earning her Bachelor of Arts in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, with a minor in Economics, she pursued a career in the financial services sector. She later transitioned into journalism, beginning her new career at CNBC, where she served as a bureau producer for the New York Stock Exchange. Applying her passion for finance directly to this position, Golodryga garnered a great deal of attention from other networks. After the events of September 11, 2001, Golodryga provided live coverage of events, conducting interviews with a large number of the city’s most prominent businessmen and women. Continuing at CNBC, Golodryga began covering some of the most important events in the world, interacting with powerful political and business leaders. She offered extensive coverage of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which earned her a place among the most popular business journalists nationwide. In 2004, she began producing segments for The Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo. In this role, she interacted with corporate giants and influential politicians. In recognition of her many accomplishments, the NewsBios/TJFR Group named Golodryga one of the nation’s top journalists under the age of 30. Golodryga serves as an inspiration for America’s young women, offering them a strong, positive role model. At present, Golodryga co-anchors the weekend editions of Good Morning America and works as a business correspondent for ABC News. She regularly appears on World News with Diane Sawyer and Nightline, among other ABC News outlets. When she first joined ABC News, she focused primarily on economic trends and important business deals. As a result, she became ABC News primary source of information about the collapse of the automobile, housing, and credit markets in recent years. Golodryga also reported on the fall of important finance firms AIG and Bear Stearns. During the 2008 election, Bianna Golodryga led ABC News’ digital media and social networking coverage of the presidential race. Golodryga embodies intelligence, drive, eloquence, and modernity. She has claimed the torch from her forebears and maintains a commitment to excellence, clearly demonstrating the abilities of female journalists in fields still dominated by men.

Connie Chung (1946- )

by JessicaGold

One of the most notable female journalists today, Connie Chung serves as a role model for many young women dreaming of becoming journalists. The daughter of an important Chinese diplomat, Chung grew up in Washington, D.C. and attended Montgomery Blair High School, one of the best secondary schools in the region. Gaining admission to the University of Maryland, College Park, Chung earned a degree in journalism and soon thereafter became a correspondent for CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. During the Watergate scandal, she gained national attention for her attention to detail, eloquence, and concise reports. After the scandal’s conclusion, she moved to Los Angeles in order to work for KNXT, a station operated by CBS and now known as KCBS. From the KNXT studios, she also anchored CBS Newsbriefs, appearing before audiences along the West Coast. Chung later established two new NBC programs, NBC News at Sunrise and American Almanac. She left NBC in the early 1990s to host Saturday Night with Connie Chung on CBS and CBS Evening News, becoming the second woman (after Barbara Walters) to co-host a national news broadcast on a major network. From this success, she launched Eye to Eye with Connie Chung and Face to Face with Connie Chung. In 1995, she began co-hosting ABC News’ 20/20 on Mondays and forged a career in independent interviews. As an interviewer, Chung often mixes soft, innocuous questions with a barrage of hard-hitting inquiries, catching the individual off-guard and often resulting in important insights. She often was the first to interview celebrities first after major news releases. After the disappearance of Chandra Levy, Chung was the first to speak with United States Representative Gary Condit, who had admitted to an affair with her. After Earvin “Magic” Johnson admitted his HIV-positive status, Connie Chung conducted the first interview. More recently, Chung guest-hosted Good Morning America but declined to become a permanent host. Around the same time, she established Connie Chung Tonight on CNN. In 2006, she hosted Weekends with Maury and Connie with her husband, Maury Povich, on MSNBC, which ran for two years. In recognition of her great achievements, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government offered Chung a teaching fellowship. While at the school, she authored The Business of Getting “The Get”: Nailing an Exclusive Interview in Prime Time. Chung’s central role in journalism over the past decades has doubtless inspired countless women to dream of similar positions. She remains an exemplar of what intelligent women may accomplish when they refuse to accept no as an answer and take their careers into their own hands.

Nellie Bly (1864-1922)

by Shizhao

Nellie Bly revolutionized the place of the woman in journalism, permanently altering America’s perceptions of female writers. As a child, Bly (born Elizabeth Jane Cochran) experienced a number of traumatic events, including the death of her father and the abusive behavior of her drunken stepfather. She attended school only briefly before dropping out because her family was unable to afford the tuition. At the age of 16, she relocated to Pittsburgh with her mother. After reading a particularly misogynistic column in the Pittsburgh Dispatch, Bly decided to write a response, which she sent to the editor. Impressed by her eloquence and style, the editor offered her a job at the paper. As most women wrote under pseudonyms at the time, He gave her the pen name Nellie Bly, taken from a popular Stephen Foster song. Her first articles with the Pittsburgh Dispatch focused on the horrible conditions of the factories in which local women labored. Unfortunately, male influence bullied her into writing about fashion, gardening, and other typical “womanly” subjects. In open rebellion, she traveled to Mexico and became a foreign correspondent. After six months, she returned home under threat of arrest by the Mexican government, led by the dictator Porfirio Díaz, whom she heavily criticized. In 1887, Bly relocated to New York and received an assignment from New York World, owned by Joseph Pulitzer. The undercover job, which catapulted Bly to fame, required her to fake insanity in order to report on supposed brutality taking place at the nearby Women’s Lunatic Asylum, located on Blackwell’s Island. She checked into a boardinghouse, refused to go to sleep, caused a ruckus, and landed herself in court. Several doctors testified to her insanity, including the head of Bellevue Hospital’s insane pavilion. The court case was featured in several newspapers. Once in the asylum, she noted the nearly inedible food, a lack of clean water, and human waste collected on the floor. There was no protection from the cold, rats abounded, and the nurses often beat patients when they acted out. After her release and the publication of Ten Day s in a Mad-House, Bly assisted a grand jury investigation of the facility, which underwent significant reforms. The year after her stunt in the asylum, Bly embarked on a recreation of Phileas Fogg’s journey in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days. In order to promote the trip, New York World held a guessing contest in which readers could estimate her arrival back in New York for a free European vacation. She used steamboats and railroads to travel through Europe and Asia. Her arrival in San Francisco from Japan was delayed, but a chartered train brought her back to New York after only 72 days. She described her travels in Around the World in Seventy-Two Days and New York World later released a board game based on her adventure. Nellie Bly earned significant respect for women journalists in the United States, demonstrating their incredible capabilities.

Sarah Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)

By Josette

For my first post, I want to discuss one of the earliest and most important American journalists, Sarah Margaret Fuller. Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fuller was taught by her father. Fuller’s father, a lawyer and politician, provided a traditional male education, teaching her Latin and Greek, instead of the typical etiquette instruction women of the time often received. As she matured, she solidified her reputation as one of the best-read individuals in New England. Using this reputation as a foundation, she hoped to build a career in journalism. Fuller published her first piece in the North American Review at the end of 1834. The articled gently criticized the work of George Bancroft, a popular historian. However, after the sudden death of her father, she abandoned other projects in order to care for the family. In 1836, she accepted a position as a teacher at the Temple School in Boston and then at the Greene Street School in Providence the following year. Around this time, she began holding “conversations,” study and conversation groups in which women could further their education. In 1839, Ralph Waldo Emerson appointed Fuller the editor of a new transcendentalist journal named The Dial. She successfully guided the journal through its first two years, becoming a central figure in the transcendentalist movement. During this period, she authored two of her most important works, The Great Lawsuit (Later republished as Women of the 19th Century) and Summer on the Lakes. In order to complete her research, she received permission to use the library at Harvard College, becoming the first woman to do so. In 1844, Fuller moved to New York and became the first female editor at the New York Tribune. As a literary critic, she was also the first full-time book reviewer in journalistic history. Two years later, the paper sent her to Europe, where she worked as its first female foreign correspondent. Arriving in England, she interviewed several popular authors, including George Sand, whom she disparaged for sexist comments during the interview. Supposedly, Sand, a controversial female French aristocrat who was known for wearing men’s clothing, believed women unfit for political service and thus refused to run for the French National Assembly. In England, Fuller fell in love with Giovanni Angelo Ossoli and moved with him to Italy. There, she witnessed and participated in the revolution that called for a Roman Republic in 1849. During her four years in Europe, she wrote more than 30 reports that she sent back to the United States. Unfortunately, a shipwreck on her way back to the United States the following year claimed her life and a good deal of the work she completed while in Europe. Fuller paved the way for many future female journalists. A prominent women’s rights advocate, she called attention to female intelligence and capabilities, becoming one of the most respected women in journalistic history.

Gender and Media Relations - By Chelsea Polinaski

Until just over a century ago, men dominated the field of journalism. Although countless women attempted to secure jobs and risked their lives for important stories, discrimination and even the law often stood in their way. Most historians recognize the 1890s as the point at which women truly broke into journalism, after the struggles of several brave individuals who fought tirelessly for equality. Nellie Bly, the most popular of these renegades, paved the way for females in contemporary journalism through her incredible work. In addition to traveling around the world, Bly also feigned insanity for an exposé about life in an insane asylum. With this blog, I hope to honor some of the most notable female journalists of past and present, those who forged the way and those who continue to carry the torch. As a student of journalism, I admire many women pioneers who have made it possible for me to even consider journalism as a career. I look forward to sharing some of the greatest influences in my life with you. I hope that you will take away even a fraction of the excitement and empowerment these women’s stories have bestowed upon me.