The Last Spine at the Post
Oct. 27th, 2024 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith... is the humor columnist. I shit you not. I can't make this shit up. Since Alexandra Petri has both a working uterus and a working brain, she is endorsing Kamala Harris.
Man, if I ran a newspaper or magazine, I'd be trying to hire her. I'd probably get outbid ... well, on cash. But I'd think of creative things like: "There's this big ol' closet beside the lounge that we could clean out and turn into a nursing lounge if you want to bring your baby to work." Bet nobody else would think of that one. Admittedly I might still get beaten by a feminist periodical that already has a nursing lounge. But that's okay.
Man, if I ran a newspaper or magazine, I'd be trying to hire her. I'd probably get outbid ... well, on cash. But I'd think of creative things like: "There's this big ol' closet beside the lounge that we could clean out and turn into a nursing lounge if you want to bring your baby to work." Bet nobody else would think of that one. Admittedly I might still get beaten by a feminist periodical that already has a nursing lounge. But that's okay.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-27 06:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-27 06:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-27 11:42 pm (UTC)She's a journalist, (and a damn good one!) you'd probably have her beating down your door if you just told she can pick her articles and no editorial control.
Hmm ...
Date: 2024-10-28 01:13 am (UTC)Then again, that is how I managed my columnists in PanGaia. When I found a writer we liked enough to want to feature every issues, then I talked with them about what they wanted to cover. Once the theme was set (in this case, humor columnist) it was the writer's free choice which aspect of that theme to feature each month. Usually some of them chose to address the issue's theme, but they didn't have to. The main point was the person -- we just wanted this person to talk to our readers regularly. As long as it was within the topical range of their column and our magazine, the rest was up to them.
Also we had a debate column where got several people from each side -- and filling both sides was often a challenge -- to speak in favor of different sides of an issue within Pagan culture. I still like magazines that have any kind of a pro-and-con column. In These Times has one.
Re: Hmm ...
Date: 2024-10-29 03:57 pm (UTC)Re: Hmm ...
Date: 2024-10-29 10:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-28 12:53 pm (UTC)"Q: You don't have to publish this (I don't expect you to) but I've just canceled my WaPo subscription over the editorial board not being allowed to endorse a president thanks to some combination of Bezos/Lewis/Shipley. Apparently I still have a couple months left because it's an annual subscription, but I'll quit today anyway. I'm sad to lose access to your chats, but not taking a stand in this election is unconscionable. I wish you the best.
A:I agree, unconscionable is the word. I am sorry to see you go but I understand."
--Laura G, a thread
(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-28 12:54 pm (UTC)avatar
A: Thank you -- I know I have left more dead air out there but this is what I was looking for. The Washington Post is not a monolith. It is separate pieces that work independently, and the news side is out there doing its thing without regard for the moral repugnance of the non-endorsement. All of us need to serve our consciences, but I hope people will recognize the value of supporting the news side as well as the many excellent opinion writers. I have, just to name one, a terrible Jennifer Rubin dependency that I hope you all will help me support.
Please know too that I have never been told what to write. Advice column, yes, I know, I have no delusions of grandeur, but I also live in culture war territory. So take that for what it's worth."
(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-28 01:01 pm (UTC)A:That is the thing, yes. Well those are two things and they are correct: that an endorsement wouldn't likely change any minds and the subscriptions support the journalism, which is independent and extremely necessary.
The third thing is what people are reacting to: that when politics ceases to be just politics and becomes a moral issue, when you have the insurrection/felony conviction/sexual assault adjudication/multiple former associates sounding the alarm and his own promise in his own words of rounding up critics as enemies despite a crystal clear First Amendment (and I'm shortening the list here because I have to go, leaving out the nazi stuff ffs), then it's unacceptable not to take the stand."
(no subject)
Date: 2024-10-28 01:03 pm (UTC)A: Well, news orgs have always had their news side and editorial sides, so WaPo for example has had an editorial board all along that posts the opinion (unsigned) of The Washington Post. So that is not new. There was never an obligation to use that board to endorse candidates. If The Post were to decide to get out of the endorsement business altogether at any other time, then I'd be okay with that as an editorial stance. This was just not the election to do it, with the stakes so high from having an egregiously unfit and dangerous candidate on the ticket."
And finally:
"For those who decided this was their last day with us, thank you for all the time and trust you gave me, and I hope we win you back. Soon."
--Laura G, citing the Post's Carolyn Hax Live Chat archive