When reporting on a story, the best thing a reporter can do is either give the facts or give enough information so the consumer can research more to come to their own conclusion. The Grio.com recently did a story that I would say was close to race baiting. They presented a story that on its face could be considered racist or sexist yet didn’t explore the reason for the discrepancy. I will give credit to some of the readers who pointed out the flaws in the article, but there were enough people who responded with anger over the ‘racism’ of the situation it made me discouraged about the clarity of the reporting.

The website reported that Kerry Washington made the list of the highest paid actors on TV, but were quick to point out she barely made the list at $3 million, coming in at 20. They went on to report that the show SCANDAL makes a reported $100 million in ad revenue. They named other actresses such as Amy Poehler, Lena Dunham and Mariska Hartigay as actresses on the list who made more money than Washington. The highest paid female TV actress, Sophia Vergara, makes $30 million a year according to the story. To clarify, the original Forbes article listed the top 20 television performers, both male and female, so while Vergara was the highest paid actress, the two leads from Two and a Half Men were the highest paid performers on TV, with $45 million for Jon Cryer and $140 million for Ashton Kutcher.

Instead of celebrating the $3 million she is making the article wants to ask the question if she is on a hit show why isn’t she making big money? First of all, she is under her original contract, I would suspect. The bigger question is why did the article mix up figures on what is made by the show and what the star generates? I checked and saw that Sophia Vergara makes the same money off Modern Family as her female co-star Julie Bowen. From the show each makes $175,000 an episode. At 24 episodes, that comes out to $4.2 million a year. So how does Bowen have a net worth of $10 million while Vergara has $30 million? In the past few years, Vergara has been a spokesperson for Cover Girl, has a line of clothing and other products that are sold. She even has done a few Pepsi commercials. Her show has been on for five years and has been a consistent hit for ABC.

Kerry Washington makes $80,000 and episode. At 22 episodes she makes a little over $1.7 million off the show. Washington has been in a lot movies and TV shows but without a doubt last year was the start of her meteoric rise in the industry. She will probably start getting the opportunities to make more money with endorsements and spokesperson gigs if she wants to, but it is unfair to imply she isn’t getting her fair share of money when no one could envision the type of buzz that would be generated from her show.

If the article in TheGrio.com wanted to invite an interesting discussion, think about this. The creator of Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy, Shonda Rhimes, has a net worth of $14 million. While she is a producer and not an actress, she has created three hit shows for ABC, two of them still on the air. She has a track record with the company, and from the information about Scandal, that one show generates $100 million. Why does Shonda Rhimes only worth $14 million considering the revenue her shows have given to the network? Understand that I know $14 million isn’t chump change, but by comparison Amy Poehler has a net worth of $18 million and Lena Dunham has a worth of $10 million. As popular as these women are as producers, and I understand he has been in the business a lot longer than they have, Donald Bellisario, creator of JAG, NCIS, Magnum PI and other shows has a net worth of $250 million. Maybe a look into the gulf between male and female producers might be more productive for TheGrio.com to investigate.