GOODY TWO SHOES: The Nation Is Hoist By Its Own Petard
Sometimes, The Stiletto’s posts just write themselves. Case in point: Ari Melber is in high dudgeon complaining about the pundit class being overwhelmingly white and male in this entry for “The Notion,” a blog published by “the flagship of the left,” The Nation:
It's still all about the white men. Hillary Clinton's loss has renewed critiques that American political media is slanted, sexist and dominated by men. …
Pundits talked a lot about gender and racial progress during the campaign, of course, but the elite opinion media continues to employ, groom and promote a commentators corps that is disproportionately white and male. …
The most traditional location to reach the political establishment, the Washington Post opinion section, is brazenly male-dominated. Seventeen of the 19 columnists are men; only three of the columnists are racial minorities … At the New York Times, eight of the ten weekly columnists are men; one is black. … And in an industry review last year, about one out of four columnists were women at the largest syndicates around the country, according to Editor and Publisher. …
The disparity is striking on air. Most anchors, producers and writers in television news are women, according to the Radio and Television News Directors Association, yet the vast majority of prime time hosts, who dominate campaign coverage and frame presidential debates, are white men.
A reader who goes by the pseudonym “Mask” wastes no time calling Melber out for hypocrisy (spelling and grammar left intact):
Mr Melber, aren't YOU a white male?
Isn't Ari Berman a white male?
I know John Nichols is a white male.
I know Peter Rothberg is a white male.
I know Richard Kim is a Korean male.
I think Tom Engelhardt is a white male.
I think Christopher Hayes is a white male.
I know Tom Hayden is a white male.
I think Robert Dreyfuss is a white male.
I think William Grieder is a white male.
I think Bob Moser is an African-American male.
Not really sure of the ethnicity but certain of the gender of ...Max Blumenthal....Marc Cooper....Matthew Blake....Max Fraser...Gary Younge....Jon Wiener....Adam Howard....
Then you've got Ms vanden Heuvel, Katha Pollitt, Laura Flanders, Te-ping Chen, and Zephyr Teachout (temporarily) and very rarely Karen Houppert and Liza Featherstone.
So of 18 males almost all white. And of all contributors 18 are male to 7 seven female. (or count Ms vanden Heuvel twice if you like, since she's a writer and the publisher.)
Seems pretty white, mostly male, with a female “boss” who probably posts fewer articles than the white males.
Touché, Mask. Well done!
Over to you, Melber.
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