The Unbearable Whiteness of Being Maureen Dowd

The American Spectator ^ | July 21, 2009 | Jeffrey Lord

[Scanian]

And a delicious dish it is. A stew of race, the New York Times, media hypocrisy and double-standards. All inadvertently stirred by the lovely and talented Times columnist, the white female Maureen Dowd.

You know all those fevered editorials they churn out over there at the New York Times editorial board? Like, for instance, the hot fury published on June 30 wonderfully titled "Firefighters and Race."

In this jewel the Times editorial board makes its displeasure plain in the very first sentence, huffing that the Supreme Court decision in favor of the New Haven firemen has "dealt a blow to diversity in the American workplace." This was followed by a July 14th column by Times columnist Dowd titled "White Man's Last Stand," to which we will return shortly.

But first, let's get the meat into the stew. You can just smell that sizzling hypocrisy, can't you?

It seems the "American workplace" (to use the Times description) that is the New Haven fire department has a higher percentage of minorities than the American workplace that is…yes indeed… the New York Times editorial board its very self. To be quite specific:

• The New Haven fire department, according to press accounts, is 43% black and Latino. Or, if you prefer the term of art, 43% of the fire department is "minority."

• The New York Times editorial board, according to the information provided by The New York Times, is -- wait for it -- 12% black and Latino. Or, again, 12 % "minority" if you prefer the term.

• The New York Times Op-Ed page team of columnists, an elite group of which Ms. Dowd is a star, is 19% black and, again according to the Times listing of its Op-Ed page columnists, 0% Latino.

[Made In The USA]

Uh... where are the Zeta-Jones pix?

[RayChuang88]

And you wonder why Michael Douglas ended up marrying this person instead:

[Old Grumpy]

Excellent article! He nailed Miz. Dowdy and the Slimes good.

[RazzPutin]

Reminds me of a presidential candidate, Mr. Hopenchange, who bitterly complained about women getting paid less for the same work.

To prove his point, he noted that the women on his campaign staff were indeed getting paid less than the men.

[DieHard the Hunter]

Jeffrey Lord scores a direct hit! This is a masterful column, well done.

[count-your-change]

Not fair! The NYT does use lots of black ink and the newsprint isn't really all that white.

Besides they shouldn't be judged by the color of their characters but by the content of their skins.

[LALALAW]

Brilliant!

[greyfoxx39]

The smackdown of the year on the liberal press! A must read!

That's right. At the core of the beating intellectual heart of the left-wing establishment where such things are studied with the detail of Talmudic scholars, the New Haven fire department is doing more than three times better on race than the very liberal elites who have set themselves up as its sniffy critics. Perhaps instead of seething about "Firefighters and Race" the Times would have been better served by pondering "Editorial Writers and Race." Or perhaps: "Too Black to Write; New York Times Column Writing and Race."

According to the New York Times, its editorial board has 17 members. Of those 17, fifteen -- say again, 15 of the 17 -- are whiter than white on rice. This includes the very white Andrew Rosenthal who runs it, carrying the title of "Editorial Page Editor."