Washington Post Crashed-and-Burned Watch (Yet Another Deborah Howell Edition)

Why oh why can't we have a better press corps:

Deborah Howell on Remedying Perceptions of Media Bias: Thousands of conservatives and even some moderates have complained during my more than three-year term that The Post is too liberal; many have stopped subscribing, including more than 900 in the past four weeks.... [S]ome of the conservatives' complaints about a liberal tilt are valid....

[T]he drumbeat of polling stories saying Obama and the Democrats were likely to win, a few Tom Toles cartoons, and TV critic Tom Shales's debate reviews -- both are liberals who are paid to offer opinions -- and conservatives decided that The Post was cheerleading.... It's not hard to see why conservatives feel disrespected.

Are there ways to tackle this? More conservatives in newsrooms.... Editors hire not on the basis of beliefs but on talent in reporting, photography and editing, and hiring is at a standstill because of the economy. But newspapers have hired more minorities and women, so it can be done...

Yes, Deborah Howell believes that newspapers have hired more women and minorities by passing over white male candidates who are more talented in reporting, editing, and photography.

And she believes that the Washington Post has an obligation to hire untalented conservatives as reporters.

Wow.

Comments

[matt wilbert]

I couldn't have less regard for Deborah Howell, but I think you are misreading her comments--I think she was trying to say that it was possible to maintain standards while hiring minorities and women, that the Post had done it, and could presumably do it with conservatives too.

That last part is a stretch.

[howard]

you mean, 900 subscriptions cancelled is enough to cause the wapo to hire rightwingers and make them reporters? had we known how cheap a date the wapo was, we might have taken out 1000 subscriptions back in 2002 just in order to cancel them when the wapo went in the tank to invade iraq.

of course, 1000 anti-war-in-iraq cancellations? doubt it would have moved donald graham one inch....

[Ken Houghton]

Clear conclusion if we assume hiring of "minorities and women" (the latter, in the workplace, is not a subset of the former?) has led to the Post's current Subscription Crisis: Fire Deborah Howell.

Now =that= is change we can believe in.

[marketdude]

The Post lost 900 subscriptions because it heartily endorsed Barack Obama for preznit and dissed McCain's for his schiziphrenia and his choice of Palin. Period.

[Michael Drake]

I'm all for political representativeness in the journalist class, as long as we also get it in the boardrooms of the media companies. Fair's fair.

['As You Know' Bob']

Well, she also agreed that the facts have a liberal bias:
apparently the Post reneged on its implied obligation NOT TO REPORT "the drumbeat of polling stories saying Obama and the Democrats were likely to win", lest the facts upset the conservatives among the readership.

[Steve J.]

I guess Little Debbie forgot the Post's last attempt at affirmative action for wingnut hacks - BEN DOMENECH!!!

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/redamerica/2006/03/ben_domenech_resigns.html

[bartkid]

'AYK'B beat to the punchline:
>facts have a liberal bias: