Teenagers\' Petition on Female Moderators Draws Support

By JODI KANTOR

Quick, name the last woman who moderated a presidential debate. If you are having trouble, there is a reason: No woman has done the job in 20 years, since Carole Simpson in 1992.

That fact is the subject of an unusual standoff between the Commission on Presidential Debates and three teenagers from New Jersey - Emma Axelrod, Sammi Siegel and Elena Tsemberis. When the girls, all 16, learned of that two-decade gap during a Montclair High School class this spring, they posted an online petition titled “It's Time for a Female Moderator” that quickly garnered more than 100,000 signatures.

Last week, the media-savvy young women marched into the commission's offices in Washington with cameras in tow and carrying printed versions of the petitions, but no one was available to meet with them. In an interview, Janet Brown, the commission's director, defended the group's practices but declined to address why two decades had passe d since a woman was chosen to moderate.

The commission looks for “journalists who have covered the campaigns and candidates and are thoroughly familiar with live TV broadcasting,” she said. Gwen Ifill of PBS moderated the 2004 and 2008 vice-presidential debates.

“I don't think anyone can give us an answer on why there hasn't been a female moderator,” Elena said in an interview on Monday in her mint-green suburban bedroom. “Clearly it's been a huge oversight.”

Frustration at a lack of equal treatment is an open secret among women who work in television news. But several prominent women in the field declined to comment on the controversy, explaining that they were reluctant to appear as if they were complaining or promoting themselves.

So in effect, the New Jersey teenagers are saying what the most powerful women in television rarely do out loud - that in newscasts, men are still often treated as if they have mo re authority than women.

Will the commission, expected to announce its choices this month, choose more than one woman to compensate for the long gap? Who will moderate the town-hall-style debate, and who will face off with the candidates in the two debates with more traditional formats?

The young women from Montclair are keeping their demand simple: just include one female moderator. For their entire lifetimes, and then some, Emma said, “it's always been men up there.”