Or perhaps she’s more of a Pussycat Doll, what with her sexxxay black knee-highs?

No matter. CNN’s prepubescent headline writers are at it again:

That’s U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meeting with The Women Leaders’ Working Group in NYC last Thursday.

The headline CNN chose for its coverage?

“GIRL POWER!” With, like, an exclamation point and everything. POW!

As described on the U.S. Department of State’s website,

The Women Leaders’ Working Group was created in 2006 to ensure issues such as women’s political and economic empowerment, education and access to justice are international priorities. The group’s strategic objective is to institutionalize high-level dialogue and action on women’s empowerment activities, highlight U.S. progress on the Working Group’s priorities, and showcase precise ways in which women leaders have actually made a difference. [...]

Participants in the meeting include: President of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet; President of the Republic of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo; President of the Republic of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf; President of the Republic of Finland, Tarja Halonen; United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Senior Advisor for Women’s Empowerment, Shrin Tahir-Kheli. Many other women Foreign Ministers will participate, including representatives from: Afghanistan; Iraq; Gabon; Greece; Yemen; and Pakistan.

Bravo, CNN. Way to infantalize and dismiss some the world’s most powerful women, who were in NY to discuss such “trivial” matters as combating the epidemic of violence against women. Nice. Fucking. Job.

And I have to say, anchor Kyra Phillips and correspondent Zain Verjee didn’t do much better than Prepubescent Headline Writer, what with all their chatter about fashion, clothing and cutesy empowerful nicknames such as “diplo-babe.” I doubt that they would have been trading designers had they been covering an all-male or mixed-gender conference. Yeesh.

Transcript after the jump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, serious girl power going on in New York. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is meeting with other power. Women. So maybe not girl, but women power. So let’s get that straight. State Department correspondent Zane Verjee, and that sounds better, right? With whom did Rice meet?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, exactly. There are more world leaders that are women than ever before. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with about 50 female leaders and four of whom were the heads of state. She met with the president of the Chile, and the president of the Philippines and the president of Liberia as well, and essentially said that women were a force to be reckoned with in the world today. Here is what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: You have been pivotal in our efforts to stop traffickers who prey on innocent women and children. You have been critical to our work to highlight the need for women to have access to education. And you have been instrumental in fighting to ensure that all women are empowered and that the glass ceilings are shattered whether here at the United Nations or in our respective countries. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VERJEE: I spoke to a woman who was present at the meeting that was not – that had no access for press to be there and she said that one of the most striking things that was said is that one minister got up and said, everyone is talking about the future rising powers and China and India, but actually the rising powers, kyat, she said, were women. The other thing they focused on was really addressing the issue of violence against women and girls worldwide, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: I’m curious, did anyone say, hey, you should be running for president or vice president? What’s the deal?

VERJEE: Yes, actually, the president of Finland said, I am happy to be here, but I just want to tell you Condi Rice, I am the president now and I used to be the foreign minister and maybe it is a path that you should consider. You know. So they had a good laugh over that. But there are so many women political figures and Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Tzipi Livni may be the next and there is also Kyra Phillips and by the way, Kyra, most of the secretary state’s, Secretary Rice’s press corps are all women, and we like to call ourselves the diplo-babes. So that’s our own little thing.

PHILLIPS: And we cannot forget that behind every good man is an even better woman. Right? Now, Zain, you were not the only one wearing a sharp suit, I noticed.

VERJEE: Yes, in is a conversation among the diplo-babes too. Secretary Rice wore a turquoise blue, an electric blue, and it was something that we never have seen her in before, so it was a subject of some conversations.

PHILLIPS: State Department correspondent-slash-diplo-babe Zain Verjee …

VERJEE: Following the important things, designer outfits.

PHILLIPS: Exactly.

Hey, it is all part of what makes a woman. All right, Zain. We already know that the brains are there.

Yesterday, they wanted him to stay away, but, Paul McCartney got to play. Israel finally said OK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

————————

Tagged: Condoleezza Rice ccn Kyra Phillips Zain Verjee girl power sexism misogyny feminism politics msm mainstream media flickr photos tv

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 10:02 pm and is filed under bitches is crazy, msm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.