Cokie Roberts, seen here in her natural habitat.
The news that less than 30 percent of last year's Sunday morning political show guests were women does not faze ABC pundit Cokie Roberts. There's a woman on every panel
she is on, right?
"I didn't even notice it," Roberts said during an appearance at a bookstore in New Jersey Tuesday to promote her children's book, Founding Mothers, which is about the unsung women of early American history. "I'm surprised at that because there seem to be a lot more than there were when I started."
Admittedly, this is true. Thirty percent is more than twenty or ten or five percent, so I'm sure each of the shows is thinking "thirty percent? We're so damn inclusive!" You have to remember the political journalism club is, shall we say, an insulated group.
Her explanation of how these things work is nice, too:
"It seems to me that the attempt is always to have a little of this, a little of that," she said. "Someone just has to balance whatever, whether it's a conservative slot that needs to be filled or a minority slot that needs to be filled. It's the luck of the draw how any given week goes."
Those really are the main two sides to every story, right? You've got your Conservative Viewpoint, and then maybe you've got your Minority Viewpoint. And we'd better make that two or three Conservative Viewpoints, just to make sure the full spectrum of Conservative Viewpoints are covered.
Yes, fine, I'm sure she didn't mean it that way. It's just always a bit fascinating to hear pundits talk about the art of high punditry and how what they do really is inclusive of actual real-world opinion, because hey sometimes there's a woman or a minority so what more do you people want.