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Shows like House of Cards may make the life of a woman reporter in Washington look exciting. But according to Marin Cogan, writing in The New Republic today, in reality, being a woman reporter in Washington exposes you to weird sexual advances from creepy D.C. bigshots who seem to think the sex-for-scoops arrangements on the show ought to happen in real life, too.
The worst of the worst, below:
In my prior job as a Hill reporter, one of my best source relationships with a member of Congress ended after I remarked that I looked like a witch who might hop on a broom in my new press-badge photo and he replied that I looked like I was “going to hop on something.”
Yeesh.
Over a round of overpriced margaritas at Washington’s Lauriol Plaza, the fund-raiser turned to the reporter and asked suggestively, “Would you ever sleep with a source for a story?”
Lauriol Plaza is adding insult to industry.
One Washington climate reporter remembers an environmentalist stroking her leg at one such outing and noting, disapprovingly, that she hadn’t shaved.
It’s enough to make you hope for retrocession.
Congress photo by Shutterstock