NBC talking head Matt Lauer is facing stout criticism for a question he asked of General Motors chief executive Mary Barra.

The question: Can you be a good parent and a good chief executive of a major company?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/06/26/matt-lauer-defends-interview-with-gms-mary-barra/11435373/

Lauer, host of the “Today” show, said he’d ask a male CEO the same question if given the chance.

Interesting, yes?

I don’t think I’ve ever heard that question posed to, say, Lee Iacocca, Ted Turner, Malcolm Forbes, Rupert Murdoch or, heck, even Jack Welch, the ex-General Electric boss and Lauer’s former boss.

USA Today reports: “Lauer notes on his Facebook page that Barra addressed the difficulty of balancing her work and home lives in a Forbes magazine article. He says if a man in a high-level job had publicly discussed the issue he’d have ‘asked him exactly the same thing.'”

Umm, I don’t think so, Matt.

The sad fact of today’s world is that Corporate American remains a Man’s World.

I have no doubt that Barra will do a good job as she grapples with the issues facing a leading automaker. Is it relevant that she’s also a mother?

Maybe, maybe not. It would be were it to become known that her job interfered with her parental responsibilities.

Matt Lauer’s insistence that he would have asked a male CEO the same thing is almost as insulting as the question he asked Mary Barra.