It's Week Two of Women's History Month, and today is International Women's Day. What better time to repeat this column about an episode of the classic comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show that encapsulates where women were in our society more than a half-century ago and somehow remains relevant to this day? (Just consider the results of the latest Myers Report study on the state of gender parity in the media workforce, as detailed here.) Titled The Good-Time News, it brilliantly addresses issues of gender inequality in the workplace at the time of its September 1972 premiere, with "working woman" Mary Richards demanding the same salary as the man who held her position before her. This may not sound groundbreaking, but it was at the time, because we had never seen a woman do this on a television show. (The influence broadcast television series had on the American public was exponentially greater in that era.) The Good-Time News also deconstructs the concept of "Fake News," meaning that our immediate past president did not invent the term, and he certainly wasn't the first to popularize it. All seven seasons of The Mary Tyler Moore Show are available for streaming on Hulu. The column, which was originally published on July 23, 2020, appears below. Take a look at the dialogue exchanges between Mary and her boss. It's all there.
Fake News and Real Truths (About Women) on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"
