WPost Insider: Colleagues "Cheer Unabashedly for the Democrats"

Media Research Center ^ | 10/4/05 | Brent Baker

[pookie18]

"Too often, we wear liberalism on our sleeve and are intolerant of other lifestyles and opinions," an editor working for the Washington Post's Sunday "Book World" section charged in a contribution to a daily internal critique of the newspaper quoted by Howard Kurtz on Monday. Marie Arana disclosed that "if you work here, you must be one of us. You must be liberal, progressive, a Democrat. I've been in communal gatherings in The Post, watching election returns, and have been flabbergasted to see my colleagues cheer unabashedly for the Democrats."

Kurtz quoted Arana in his October 3 "Media Notes" column on "daily in-house electronic critiques that have sparked an impassioned debate about The Post's future."

Kurtz recited Arana's observation: "On Thursday, Book World Editor Marie Arana, noting that she had been 'a Young Republican at 15, a marching SDSer at 20, and roundly disgusted by the blue-team, red-team political dialogue by the time I turned 30,' criticized an article on what was called a 'stealth evangelism' festival by saying: 'The elephant in the newsroom is our narrowness. Too often, we wear liberalism on our sleeve and are intolerant of other lifestyles and opinions....We're not very subtle about it at this paper: If you work here, you must be one of us. You must be liberal, progressive, a Democrat. I've been in communal gatherings in The Post, watching election returns, and have been flabbergasted to see my colleagues cheer unabashedly for the Democrats.'"

Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie, however, Kurtz relayed, saw Arana's comments as demonstrating the diversity of his staff as he "says he is concerned if some staffers are openly displaying political preferences but that Arana's comments were valuable and 'made clear that we do have a diverse staff when it comes to ideological backgrounds.'"

For Kurtz's story in full: www.washingtonpost.com

For the Post's bio of Arana, with a picture: washpost.com

The MRC's Tim Graham posted a NewsBusters.org blog item about this on Monday, with the text of Kurtz's later online chat comments on Arana. To read that and/or to share your comments, go to: newsbusters.org

[gondramB]

""Too often, we wear liberalism on our sleeve and are intolerant of other lifestyles and opinions," an editor working for the Washington Post's Sunday "Book World" section "



Prediction: This will soon be the editor who used to work at the Post.

[Brilliant]

"Too often, we wear liberalism on our sleeve..."




In other words, "We've got to be more secretive of the fact that we are leftwing nutcases."

[The_Victor]

Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie, however, Kurtz relayed, saw Arana's comments as demonstrating the diversity of his staff as he "says he is concerned if some staffers are openly displaying political preferences but that Arana's comments were valuable and 'made clear that we do have a diverse staff when it comes to ideological backgrounds.'"

So in the world of liberals, having one conservative (perhaps moderate) in a sea of thousands of leftists qualifies as balance.

[ClearCase_guy]

Some of my best employees are Republican. There's ummmm... there's ... oooooh, I think we've got one in the mailroom .... and ... uhhhhh .... there's Marie What's-her-name ... and ... well, anyway, the point is we have a very diverse staff.

[popdonnelly]

Hey, what a big surprise! The Post is liberal/left!

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie, however, Kurtz relayed, saw Arana's comments as demonstrating the diversity of his staff...

"I've got one red-stater," Kurtz added. /sarcasm

[geezerwheezer]

Memo to the soon-to-be-former Editor of the Washingtn Post:
NO SH** SHERLOCK !! WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CLUE? DEFENDING CLINTON, OR DEFENDING SANDY "PANTSMAN" BERGER? What a dweeb.

[rightinthemiddle]

"...I've been in communal gatherings at the Post..."

Communal gatherings?

What a bunch of crap.

[philsfan24]

what?!?!? the washington post is liberal?!?!?!? i had no idea!

[ConservativeDude]

That any reporter would cheer for any politician is unseemly

[Steve_Seattle]

"I've been in communal gatherings in The Post, watching election returns, and have been flabbergasted to see my colleagues cheer unabashedly for the Democrats."

I wonder why she was flabbergasted? I remember when Paula Zahn still worked for Fox, on election night 2000, when they prematurely gave the election to Gore, and the camera cut back to Paula a couple of seconds too soon and caught her in a joyous, "Whoo Hoo!!!" I imagine that kind of reacion was repeated in many newsrooms that night.

[Aetius]

A late admission is better than none, though obviously you are correct; this is the perfect instance for the NO SH** SHERLOCK phrase.

[rightinthemiddle]

I'm amazed at these elitist little pip-squeeks in the MSM, especially the newspapers. I'm glad they have time for "communal gatherings."

They actually think they are important.

My intitial career goal was to write for a newspaper. After serving as managing editor of my campus newspaper, I decided it wasn't for me...to many egos.

I run an ad agency. We have writers, graphic designers, marketing professionals, etc. All these people bust their asses every day so our clients can prosper, create jobs, etc.

These newsaper pukes couldn't even empty our trash cans. They really don't even know what a real job is! All they do is sit around and caress each other.

Just like the rest of the MSM. Out of touch, out of line and always whining.

[Steve_Seattle]

"These newsaper pukes couldn't even empty our trash cans. They really don't even know what a real job is! All they do is sit around and caress each other."

I'm no fan of the MSM, but I don't think that's a fair characterization. My sister and her husband both work for the Seattle Times, and they and their colleagues are mostly very hard workers, as far as I can tell. They are, however, liberal and pro-Democrat almost to a man, and fairly blind to the degree to which their biases color their work.

[geezerwheezer]

Well, I coulda just written....WELL, DUH !! ...but I wrote something I thought said it better. :0)

[rightinthemiddle]

Not painting them all with a broad brush. I worked on three newspapers myself.

However, if people at the Post have time to fret about stuff like this, they have too much free time.

I think the people who write for newspapers should all be required to actually sell newspapers, and sell ads in those papers, just for the experience.

These people trash business, corporations, business owners (mostly Republicans)...then wonder where the money comes from to pay their salaries!

I'm sure your sister and brother-in-law are fine people.

[vbmoneyspender]

Arana's comments were valuable and 'made clear that we do have a diverse staff when it comes to ideological backgrounds.'"

In other words, the fact that we are being criticized by our own people for being too liberal proves that we are not too liberal.

[noblejones]

>>
So in the world of liberals, having one conservative (perhaps moderate) in a sea of thousands of leftists qualifies as balance.
<<

Yes. One Conservative is worth a thousand lefties.