Media Feminist Sisterhood: Newsweek's Anna Quindlen Celebrates Katie and Hillary

April 10th, 2006 5:04 PM

In her Newsweek back-page column this week, feminist Anna Quindlen dances a Superiority Dance on the declining Miss America pageant, as the subheadline read: "Miss America was supplanted by her sisters, who carried briefcases instead of roses and preferred a suit to a maillot and heels." Quindlen made yet another karma connection between anchor-in-waiting Katie Couric and president-in-waiting Hillary Clinton:

There are better contests today, with much better prizes. Katherine Anne Couric, from the great state of Virginia, wins the anchor seat at CBS and a reported annual salary equal to the gross national product of an emerging nation. Hillary Rodham Clinton, resident of New York, waits in the wings (or at least the Senate) for a possible stint as the leader of the free world. Granted, both require tap dancing and fixed smiles. But the white gloves are off and there are no dummies involved.

On the "dummies" front, I believe Quindlen didn't have space to take up Katie's failure to recognize the Washington Post's Bob Graham diary satire in 2003, among other embarrassments...

Quindlen also made the news in Florida for headlining a dinner (along with new Planned Parenthood boss Cecile Richards) celebrating the 40th anniversary dinner of Planned Parenthood of Central and Southwest Florida. ("Tickets are $140, $75 for people under 30 years old.") Sarasota Herald-Tribune columnist Marjorie North highlighted her take on the best Quindlen quotes:

-- "I've discovered that mothering is so challenging and so critical to society that to force it on a woman is immoral."

-- "Shame on health care policies that cover Viagra and not birth control."

-- "The ghosts of Puritanism have a headlock on the spirit of progress."

-- "When we pontificate, we miss the opportunity to educate." ...

-- "We're not dealing with the uterus; we're dealing with the human heart."

-- And, finally, referring to the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision ... "The clock cannot move backwards, nor can we."

Finally, another dip into the ancient MRC archives to see how much Katie Couric likes Quindlen. From the May 1992 MediaWatch, this golden oldie:

ADORING ANNA. When New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, it made NBC's Today so happy that they interviewed her twice -- in one week. Mary Alice Williams, co-host of Sunday Today, and Katie Couric, co-host of Today, each took a turn celebrating feminism's newest heroine. For example, Williams' April 12 introduction: "A number of brilliant writers this week won the grand slam of journalism, the Pulitzer Prize. But only one of them produces the kind of work that people tear out of the paper and tape to the 'fridge." She described her guest as "one of the most influential journalists in America" and "a woman who's always exercising her intellect." Williams' idea of a tough question: "You have it all! Don't you just hate that?"

On April 8, Couric told Quindlen "So often I read [your] things and I think: 'Yes!' Now obviously you're convincing me or reaffirming some of my beliefs." What is it about Quindlen's columns that so delights Couric and Williams? Maybe such profound 'Quindlenisms' as, on January 24, 1991: "Sunday, the Super Bowl will be played in Tampa and so, inevitably, my thoughts turn to abortion." Or, on November 2, 1991: "This is what it is like to be a New Yorker, to have to stop and constantly acknowledge pain." And a quick sample of her "middle ground" analysis of politics, from April 8, 1992, "Ronald Reagan needed TV to abet a fantasy. Mr. Clinton needs it to communicate his reality."