by Cheryl Rofer
If I recall correctly, some time ago Deborah Howell, the Washington Post's ombudsman, wrote that it really would be nice if the Post had more female reporters and editoral writers. This must have been a slow week for newspaper corrections, because she's gone back to that theme.
If I recall correctly, I wrote a small post in response about how, some long time before, one of the Post's editorial page editors had mourned the lack of female op-ed writers and had asked for bloggers and others to volunteer. We responded and got, I think, one e-mail back, followed by silence. After writing that post, I e-mailed Howell with a link to it. The response to that was an automated one that Howell was on vacation for some weeks, followed by silence.
So here we are again. I guess I'll send her a link to this post. Commenters may predict her response, if they feel so inclined.
But she's lowered her sights. Yes, she barely mentions that more women opining on the op-ed page would be nice, but here's how to get women really involved.
Opportunities abound, especially on Page 1, to draw in women with stories about families, relationships and parenting. The Post in print has precious little coverage of those topics outside of Style advice columnists.And maybe the Post could dumb down the vocabulary and provide more pictures of children and animals?
I think I read somewhere that Howell's contract with the Post is ending and she will be replaced by a male ombudsman. We can hope that he's actually up to the job.