Wednesday, May 31

Oh, Come On NOW

So the National Organization for Women thinks Elizabeth Vargas is a cause célèbre? Does she even rank as a garden variety célèbre? When someone says to me, "If it can happen to Elizabeth Vargas it can happen to anyone," I have to assume they're referring to hosting World News Tonight, not getting shoved out the door.

Okay, okay, NOW can look out for its own agenda. But aren't there millions of women out there with no health care, no disability insurance, who can be fired because the boss doesn't like how they say, "Good morning," who are just one religious crackpot with a pharmacy degree away from poverty? Wouldn't most of those women consider one week of Elizabeth Vargas' pay a godsend?

Don't get me wrong, just because Vargas is extremely overpaid because she learned to read and comb her hair doesn't abrogate her rights. But she isn't being dumped for getting pregnant; she's getting dumped because ABC can't do the Ken and Barbie News now since Ken caught some shrapnel in the conk. They waited a decent period. They can't bring on Ken's Best Friend Skippy, and they can't leave Barbie there alone. Barbie is a fluff merchant. Fortune's turned against her, just like Fortune cold-shouldered thousands of other girls and boys who weren't pretty enough to get there in the first place. The difference being that Vargas gets millions for not quite making it, and the 24-hour-a-day nanny service women with real problems will never know.

Besides, nobody's ever had a better opportunity to put something in John Stossel's coffee and failed.

8 comments:

DBK said...

Jesus Christ that's a good posting.

Anonymous said...

Agreed. But don't make me talk about NOW. You won't like it.

Ray Bridges said...

I have never understood the concept of "reader as celebrity." Maybe if they utilized their celebrity to ask other celebrities sharp and probing questions, but Vargas was no Dan Rather.

I don't watch much television these days.

T.H. said...

your comments about stossel are NASTY!

Vitamin J said...

You hit the nail on the head. The status of Vargas's womb had nothing to do with her dismissal. And her severence package will be worth much more than most people (male and female) earn in a lifetime, so it's incredibly difficult for me to feel pity for a displaced network anchorbot.

Same thing for Katie Couric, about 12-18 months from now.

Jaye Ramsey Sutter said...

Until women, including NOW, take themselves seriously, Vargas, who isn't a serious woman, will be their poster child.

I taught with a woman who wouldn't watch Roseanne because it was "too blue collar." So feminism is only about white, college educated, (don't get me started on how meaningless that is) reading poems about their vaginas and forgetting that most women they could help don't think of it as a vagina. Oh but we wouldn't want to be vulgar, or offensive, or real.

Whew.

Anonymous said...

Stossel is nasty. Libertarianism, Stossel style, is basically social darwinism but with a conspicuous statement that the shit that happens to you is actually *good* for you.

Code Pink gets a lot more of my money these days than NOW does. There's a backbone.

Anonymous said...

Eat your peas, NOW! Children are starving in China!