Was Politico's article on Janet Yellen misogynistic?
Politico tweet reporting that Yellen "raked" in over $7.2 million from Wall Street and corporate speeches creates controversy whether their is a double-standard for how the media covers women.
The Facts:
President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for the nomination for U.S. Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, was historical in that Yellen would be the first women to hold the title if confirmed by the Senate.
In order to move through the confirmation process the Biden campaign filed Yellen’s financial disclosure documents 'mid-week' according to a Biden transitional official. After the Office of Government Ethics reviewed the documents, they were released to the public late Thursday, Dec. 31.
The documents showed Yellen had earned over $7.2 million in 'speaking fees' in 2019 and 2020 from Wall Street and other large cooperations such as Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Google, City National Bank, UBS, Citadel LLC, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Salesforce and more.
The two largest payers to Yellen were Citibank, who paid her almost $1 million dollars for nine different speeches, and Citadel Credit Union, who paid Yellen $800,000 in speaking fees.
The Biden campaign also filed and released Antony Blinken’s, Biden’s Secretary of State nominee, and Avril Haines’, Biden’s director of national intelligence nominee, financial disclosure documents.
Blinken’s documents revealed and/or confirmed the clients and payments Blinken received while he was an advisor for WestExec Advisors, a consulting firm co-founded by several former Obama administration alumni. Some of the clients Blinken advised were Facebook, Uber, LinkedIn, Bank of America, Boeing, AT&T and the pharmaceutical company Gilead.
Blinken was paid a combined $1.2 million for advising these clients in 2019 and 2020 and it is estimated Blinken is still owed $250,000-$500,000 for his work in late 2020.
Blinken also has a stake in WestExec Advisors that is estimated to worth $1-5 million. Blinken is reportedly planning to sell his stake in WestExec before his senate hearings for his nomination.
Haines documents show she received $180,000 in 'consulting fees' from Palantir, a Silicon Valley data-mining company that has had several controversies in the past.
Some of these controversies include racial discrimination lawsuits, a disinformation campaign, and a governmental partnerships with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
According to a report from The Intercept in June 2020, Haines’ biography at the Brookings Institute, a Washington D.C. think tank, 'boasted' of her work at Palantir. This was until Haines started working for the Biden campaign in June of 2020 and her relation to the company on her Brooking Institute profile disappeared.
A Biden transition official commented on Haines's relation with Palantir by stating Haines “primarily focused on [Palantir's] diversity and inclusion efforts, particularly increasing gender diversity.”
The Controversy:
Shortly after Yellen’s, Blinken’s and Haines’ financial disclosure documents were released, Politico published an article with the headline:
In addition, Politico tweeted out the article with a caption reading:
Soon after the tweet, the article and tweet faced controversy on whether or not women were being held to a double-standard by the media and/or if the reporting was misogynistic.
Perspective #1: Reporting is misogynist and/or biased
The viewpoint that the reporting by Politico is misogynist is prominent on Twitter. One of the most popular tweets was from Andrea Junker, an artist, who said:
Some also argued, such as Julia Azari, a political science professor at Marquette University, that the 'speaker fee controversies' generally only are raised with women:
Azari’s mention of Hillary Clinton, the Democrat’s nominee for president in 2016, is in reference to when Clinton faced controversy in her 2016 campaign after WikiLeaks released hacked transcripts and payments from her speeches to Wall Street.
Others argued Yellen’s speaking fees show her expertise in economics and that many value her knowledge, such as Andrew Laufer, a civil rights attorney in New York City:
Some found issue not necessarily with the reporting or headline of the article, but how the tweet was phrased by using the term 'raked in' to describe Yellen’s payments. The host of the Signorile Show on Sirius XM, Michelangelo Signorile, said:
Perspective #2: Reporting was fair, necessary and/or not misogynist
On the other hand, many found the reporting by Politico to be fair and important because of the belief, no matter the gender, business dealings in Wall Street have the potential to influence policy.
For example, congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who was mentioned in Junker’s tweet (see above), tweeted she thinks the reporting is important and necessary. However, she believed this type of reporting is 'disproportionately wielded on women':
Matt Bruenig, the founder of the crowd-funded think tank People’s Policy Project, made a comparison to ethical standards held by the Office of Inspector General U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OIG HHS). The OIG HHS states they are 'skeptical' about doctors who participate/participated in speaking programs associated with the pharmaceutical industry:
Glenn Greenwald, a journalist who previously worked at The Intercept and The Guardian, argued in a tweet Politico’s reporting was not misogynist because the article also reported on Tony Blinken’s financial disclosure documents:
In the past there has been coverage on male politicians receiving significant money from 'speaking fees'. Some of these politicians include Former President Barak Obama (D), former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R), former President Bill Clinton (D), Utah Senator Mitt Romney (R), and more.
Read more about politicians and the money they make from speaking fees here.
What’s next?
Janet Yellen, Tony Blinken, Avril Haines and the other Biden cabinet nominees will likely go through a Senate hearing before president-elect Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
In the hearings, each will likely face questions about their previous work, business dealings, and personal policy they plan on implementing in their presumed positions.