In the vast and luxurious clubhouse of Seven Oaks Country Club, the League of Women Voters of Kern County hosts three female veterans of television news broadcasting in Bakersfield. Prior to their appearance the audience is treated to cashews and cake and a political history lesson: eleven states allowed women\u2019s suffrage before the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920, theoretically granting all women the right to vote; this struggle for equal rights began shortly after the Civil War; and now more eligible women than men vote. These points are doubtless noted by two politicians at my table, Mayor Harvey Hall and Pedro Rios, a Republican candidate for the state assembly. <\/p>\n
\tThe guests of honor, attired in their on-air best this Sunday afternoon, sit at a table in front and first answer questions from their hostesses and then the audience.<\/p>\n
\tJackie Parks, news anchor at KERO-Channel 23, began her television career in Great Falls, Montana, moved up to the Billings market, and for more than twenty years has worked in Bakersfield. She describes her job as \u201cfascinating and difficult\u201d but worries about her daughter entering the business since \u201cthe audience can be brutal. They rip apart women\u2019s appearance but men don\u2019t get the same abuse. People are unforgiving if you have a bad day in appearance or performance. They also call or write when they don\u2019t like your work, not when they like it.\u201d <\/p>\n
\tInside the newsroom Parks enjoys a more congenial atmosphere. Long ago, for a year and a half, she was \u201cthe only woman\u201d there and the place \u201cturned into a locker room.\u201d The profane male camaraderie \u201cchanged when another woman arrived. Now there are a lot more women and it\u2019s hard to find men.\u201d They seek jobs that pay more. <\/p>\n
\tOne of Parks\u2019 most gratifying experiences occurred when she covered a family in Oildale that dwelled in a trailer in \u201cextreme poverty.\u201d That Christmas season she took the family bowling and then out for pizza and gave each person a present. One of the children, a little girl, asked, \u201cAre you Santa Claus?\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCarol Ferguson, a general assignment reporter for KBAK-Channel 29, started in radio before switching to television. She says her job is full of \u201cdeadlines and pressure and doesn\u2019t pay much money. But I never know what\u2019s going to happen when I arrive in the morning. One time I covered a homeless family that had been camping by the Kern River, and the husband disappeared into the water. His wife told me she saw his \u2018big brown eyes\u2019 go under. Then she hugged me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFerguson, a petite four-foot-eleven, is feisty in pursuit of stories, but she concedes once being frightened by a \u201chomeless man with something green growing out of his face.\u201d When he approached, Ferguson did not seek an interview.<\/p>\n
\tAlissa Carlson, chief meteorologist for KGET-Channel 17, inspired by her mother who was a reporter, became an anchor at age nineteen in the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois. She thought her career had been launched but was laid off and moved to Greenville, North Carolina. While working she finished her college degree online and obtained a \u201cBeverly Hills agent\u201d who flew her to Bakersfield in 2007. \u201cIt must\u2019ve been the hottest day of the summer,\u201d she says. \u201cI was shocked by the heat rising from the tarmac, and I thought no way I\u2019m living here long, a year or two at most.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCarlson notes the competitive nature of the business has made her stronger but thinks she \u201cshould feel more needy.\u201d She\u2019s also on guard against inhuman competition, computers that pump out atmospheric predictions. \u201cI try to discredit their weather forecasts. I don\u2019t want a cell phone to replace me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tNature is another competitor Carlson fears. \u201cI generally dress a few years younger than I really am, and I never tell my age. If I never tell, I\u2019ll never expire.\u201d <\/p>\n
\tIn a visual medium that often magnifies imperfections otherwise invisible to the unaided eye, television broadcasters must be concerned about age and appearance. Alissa Carlson looks to be in her thirties and is the youngest of the three guests, yet she worries more about the effects of time. Carol Ferguson simply states that she\u2019s fifty-nine and still working. Jackie Parks refers to working in her forties, and that\u2019s where she is. It\u2019s not so much the number as the image. Check out Diane Sawyer, now the prime-time voice of ABC News. She\u2019s sixty-six but seems much younger. No 1945 baby is still that pretty without plenty of help. I applaud her artisans. <\/p>\n
Editorial notes: Only this week have women, and precisely two, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, been granted membership rights at Augusta National Country Club, host of the Master\u2019s golf tournament and long a bastion of white male exclusivity. <\/p>\n
Mayor Harvey Hall enjoys visiting towns where minor league baseball is played and following the teams for a couple of weeks. He says the culture and enthusiasm of the sport at that level are refreshing. Last year, in addition to Indianapolis and Louisville, he visited Bowling Green, Kentucky. Not many people mention sleepy Bowling Green. I surprise Hall by noting I was born there.<\/p>\n
Pedro Rios was born in Michoac\u00e1n, Mexico, came to Delano as a child, became a teacher, administrator, businessman, and politician. He won the Republican primary for state assembly in the 32nd District in June and faces Democrat Rudy Salas in November. <\/p>\n
![To see a photo of Alissa Carlson, please click here\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the vast and luxurious clubhouse of Seven Oaks Country Club, the League of Women Voters of Kern County hosts three female veterans of television news broadcasting in Bakersfield. 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