Viacom International (parent company of CBS, Paramount Pictures, and MTV Networks) is currently looking for a lobbyist in Washington to help pursue their agenda of media consolidation.
According to the Washington Post ("You Can Tell a Republican by His Stripes," 12/17/04) Viacom's Gail McKinnon sent an e-mail this week to offices in the U.S. House of Representatives regarding a job opening in Viacom's government relations department. The e-mail calls for a male, Republican to fill the open position and reads as follows: "Importance: High We need to hire a junior lobbyist/PAC manager. Attached is a job description. Salary is $85-90K. Must be a male with Republican stripes."
Despite Viacom's publicly stated and self-congratulatory goal of diversity and inclusion in their employee ranks, they seem to have overlooked this policy when they posted the above job listing.
Thankfully this has not gone unnoticed by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) who called for both an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Congressional investigation into Viacom International Inc.'s hiring practices.
"This is a blatant violation of federal law prohibiting discrimination against women in hiring," Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. "It is stunning that one of the largest corporations in America is so comfortable violating this 40 year-old prohibition that it has openly sent an e-mail advertising its discriminatory hiring practices to the very body that passed the anti-discrimination laws in the first place. One cannot help but be concerned that Viacom may have a practice of discriminating against women. As a result, CREW calls upon both Congress and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to begin immediate investigations in into Viacom's hiring practices."