Maybe we could give one away with every
subscription
Segregation, Deborah Howell style
by kos
Sun Dec 10, 2006 at 04:48:06 PM PST
Ok, let's do a little comparison.At the Washington Post, out of 20 columnists on the Op-Ed page, 17 are men. Only three are non-white. Looking at columnists throughout the entire paper, its 44-17, male to female. Only eight are non-white, and of those, only one isn't African American.
Now this is a problem in the newspaper that supposedly speaks to the power elite. But that's not the worst of it. The worst is ombudsman Deborah Howell's solution.
The Metro section needs a female columnist, and it also needs a columnist attuned to the region's burgeoning Latino communities. A Latino columnist could appear in the Extras since they are oriented toward counties and neighborhoods. Not all new voices have to be on the staff; they could be regular contributors. Metro's new Page Three could be used to bring in more female and minority voices.
The point is not to toss excellent white male columnists; the point is to add more and lively voices to The Post.
The point is to segregate the new minority and female voices in the fluff sections of the site, while leaving the "serious" op-ed pages to the usual white suspects. You know, the Beltway's "wise" men.
And as I've shown, Latinos are only good for talking about "neighborhoods". Because that's where we're "oriented".
The most popular blog on the left is run by a Latino. Several others are run by blacks and latinos. Several more, on the right and left, are run by women. As odious as Michelle Malkin is, there is no counterpart for her in a major American newspaper.
How many black columnists actually get to write about issues other than race. While I choose to write about race, I don't have to. My counterparts on newspapers are chosen to write expressly on racial issues. This blog has content many people have never seen an African American discuss in detail. Not because they don't, but because they are shut out of the discussion.
When was the last time you saw a column by a black expert on something other than race or athletics or health care. Despite the thousands of blacks and latinos who work for state and defense, which of them make the leap to pundit.
The right is especially noxious in their tokens. They hire one barely competent black person who spouts their dogma and they then let them comment on race or serve as apologists.
The blogosphere has changed the dynamics of who gets to comment on politics in a major way. Women, minorities, gays. People who are ignored by the traditional media.
