NYTimes Op/Ed: Truth, Lies and Subtext

[The_Rorschach]

That was an excellent piece, delivered with flair, accumen and relevancy. I think entirely too much has been made of this entire situation, and furthermore, making it a headline was undignified as well as the the way it has been handled since is indiscrete.

But I disagree in one small point, or rather, the main point which is the one his entire thesis rests on:

"And while these agitators won't admit it, the nasty subtext to their attack is that there is something inherently wrong with blacks."

This is just ridiculous. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclaimation one hundred and forty years ago, and I've growing sick of apologising for the actions of men who's grandchildren died long before today. This percieved mindset the author propositions is baseless, and is presented without any substitant support whatsoever. He doesn't make any attempt to justify it, he simply states it as fact, and I , for one, am not going to mindlessly nod along from the sidelines.

"So let's be real. Discrimination in the newsroom — in hiring, in the quality of assignments and in promotions — is a much more pervasive problem than Jayson Blair's aberrant behavior"

Oh really? Somehow I can't help but think that if the discrimination was as prevailant within the hiring habits of the New York Times that whites were being chosen over better qualified blacks, that we would have been hearing earfuls of it long before now.

The New York Times, with a September 1999 circulation of 1,086,000, is the unofficial social, fashion, entertainment, political, and cultural guide of the nation. Such as status as it had attained is both a blessing and a curse, for while it makes it an incredibly affluent and influential periodical, it also makes it an object of scrutiny in every detail. If there was any favouritism shown towards whites, it would have been pointed out by a rival long before now. Also, perhaps of note, perhaps not, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. is the paper's current publisher and the chairman of the New York Times Co. The executive editor is Joseph Lelyveld. Both are Jews. If any people are going to be aware of discriminatory practices, I believe it would be they, therefore his accusations of no diversity is clearly faulty at best.