It’s been a while since we measured the lack of diversity at major liberal publications.
In 2012, I did a photo montage of the NY Times Editorial Board and Masthead in response to an Op-Ed by a U. Penn. professor accusing Republicans of tokenism by appointing Tim Scott to fill the seat vacated by Jim DeMint, I would never be so insulting as to accuse the NY Times of tokenism:
The New York Times today ran a demeaning Op-Ed about Tim Scott, the Republican Congressman from South Carolina who was just appointed to the seat being vacated by Jim DeMint.The Op-Ed was written by U. Penn. Political Science Professor Adolf L. Reed Jr., The Puzzle of Black Republicans, and accused Republicans of engaging in tokenism by appointing Scott:But this “first black” rhetoric tends to interpret African-American political successes — including that of President Obama — as part of a morality play that dramatizes “how far we have come.” It obscures the fact that modern black Republicans have been more tokens than signs of progress….No number of Tim Scotts — or other cynical tokens — will change that.In response to my post about the Op-Ed, SoccerDad suggested a look at The NY Times Masthead and Editorial Board. Here’s that look:
I did the same thing for the University of Pennsylvania Department of Political Science, in which the Op-Ed author worked, I would never be so insulting as to accuse the U. Penn Political Science Department of tokenism.
The NY Times, however, has not succeeded in diversifying as it demands everyone else diversify. The Times’ Public Editor, Liz Spayd, admitted as much in a recent column, Preaching the Gospel of Diversity, but Not Following It:
ONLY two of the 20-plus reporters who covered the presidential campaign for The New York Times were black. None were Latino or Asian. That’s less diversity than you’ll find in Donald Trump’s cabinet thus far. Of The Times’s newly named White House team, all six are white, as is most everyone in the Washington bureau.Traveling to other departments, Metro has only three Latinos among its 42 reporters, in a city with the second largest Hispanic population in the country. Sports has one Asian man, two Hispanics and no African-Americans among its 21 reporters, yet blacks are plentiful among the teams they cover and the audience they serve. In the Styles section, every writer is white, while American culture is anything but.The executive editor, Dean Baquet, is African-American. The other editors on his masthead are white. The staff with the most diversity? The news assistants, who mostly do administrative jobs and get paid the least.The Times can be relentless in questioning the diversity at other institutions; it has written about the white ranks of the technology sector, public schools, police departments, Oscar nominees, law firms, legislatures, the major leagues and the Ivy League. Fixing its own problems comes less easily….The newsroom’s blinding whiteness hit me when I walked in the door six months ago….
Diversity is hard, and so is math:
What’s the answer? The article talks around the problem, mostly, relying on platitudes.
One solution was not considered.
How about mass resignation by Whites in the newsroom? That would be not just liberal virtue signaling, but practical. It’s a zero sum game, there are only a finite (and dwindling) number of jobs at the Times.
The Times employees demanding diversity elsewhere shouldn’t just write about it, they should do it.
[Featured Image: NY Times newsroom 1945]
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