Deborah Howell Discovers Old White Men - On the WaPo Opinion Page

by CKR

The ombudsman for the Washington Post, Deborah Howell, today gives us the stats, and they are unambiguous: old white men write most of the Post's opinion pieces and are most of the people employed by the Post to do so.

I vaguely recall a time, a few years back, when one of their opinion page editors, a woman, asked for women bloggers to make themselves known to her. WhirledView was new, and we seized the opportunity. I think there was some response, but the interaction quickly died.

I've written a couple of e-mails to Deborah Howell, but the most I ever got back was an automated response saying she would be on vacation for six months or something equally encouraging.

I may be obsessed with business models lately, but I find it strange that Howell seems to expect that the answer to diversifying the Post's op-ed page is that somehow, mysteriously, women will submit more op-eds to the Post. Most organizations interested in increasing diversity have recognized that they have to be a bit more proactive in finding those diverse people.

Answering e-mails would seem to be a minimal beginning in that direction.