Tag: Deborah Howell

Reason #487 Why Blogs Are Thriving And Print Is Dying

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

Guess what.  The traditional media have discovered the earth shaking news that their op-ed pages are too male and too white. Doh.  Like most readers didn’t realize that?

Nicholas Kristof today reports that the Washington Post’s ombudsperson has written that op-ed pages are too male and too white:

Deborah Howell, the ombudsman of The Washington Post, has an interesting column looking at the diversity – or, rather, lack of diversity – on the op-ed page of the Post. She begins:

The Post’s op-ed page is too male and too white. And there aren’t a lot of youthful opinions, either.

   I have nothing against older white men; I’m married to one. And the nation’s power structure, often represented in Post op-eds, is white, male and at least middle-aged. But a 21st-century op-ed page needs more diversity.

   The 2008 numbers as of Wednesday: 654 op-ed pieces – 575 by men, 79 by women and about 80 by minorities. The lack of diversity is partly a matter of tradition; The Post’s longtime stable of regular columnists consists overwhelmingly of older white men.