Tealion

Musings on Local and Consumer Internet
Mon Feb 1

Talking the Talk…Mother Jones, The Atlantic, and The Nation

My politics these days can best be characterized by “None of the Above”.  However, one thing that I have found obnoxious over the years is the penchance of those on the Left to characterize themselves as defenders of affirmative action , opponents of structural racism, as well as champions of diversity - while closing the door to minorities within they have the opportunity to make good on their words.

For fun, I surveyed the mastheads of three powerful leftist journals- The Nation, The Atlantic, and Mother Jones.  In some cases, its not clear to verify the ethnicity of the staff.  However, I viewed photos on the site and in other cases issued a Google search with the publication and journalist to verify race.  Here’s what I found:

The Atlantic

White Staff Members verified:

Editor: James Bennett, white

Deputy Editor

Scott Stossel

Editorial Director, TheAtlantic.com

Bob Cohn

Literary Editor & National Editor

Benjamin Schwarz

Senior Editors

Clive Crook, C. Michael Curtis (fiction), Joshua Green, Corby Kummer, Andrew Sullivan

National Correspondents

Mark Bowden, James Fallows, Robert D. Kaplan

Non-white staff members verified : 0

-Beyond examination of the masthead, I examined contributors on the site itself.  It seemed as though white journalists were tasked with the serious political reporting and analysis.  And then I saw “Listening To Gangsta Rap With Your Kids” by a black author which includes the following: “There’s a song 100 Miles And Running called “Just Don’t Bite It,” in NWA describes all manner of blowjobs they’ve gotten, and basically talk about women like shit.”  I am so thrilled to see that this minority journalist was given such an important assignment; lets  move on…

————-

The Nation

White Staffers verified:

Editor & Publisher: Katrina vanden Heuvel

President: Teresa Stack

Managing Editor: Roane Carey

Executive Editor: Betsy Reed

Senior Editors: Richard Lingeman

Washington, DC: Editor: Christopher Hayes

National Affairs Correspondent: William Greider

Non-white staffers verified: 0

The Nation proved more difficult since author bios didn’t contain a picture; nonetheless, using Google Image Search proved useful.

Aside from the masthead, a review of the site itself reviewed a few minority contributors:  Anand Gopal, Julian Sanchez.

——

Mother Jones

White staffers verified:

Monika Bauerlein, Clara Jeffery Editors

Non-white staffers verified: 0 amongst editorial staff

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The above research was conducted over a few hours and obviously is not definitive.   In going through the masthead and site, none of the three major liberal journals contains a significant number of minorities on its editorial staff.

How is this possible?  At UC Berkeley, a large fraction of polisci majors were minorities.  Are none of these people qualified?  Tired of the excuses offered by multinationals, community groups pressured companies such as IBM to diversify their workforce by consciously expanding their recruiting efforts towards minority communities.  The earlier rationalization of choice was that there were not enough qualified blacks/latinos to be hired as engineers.  But examination of their HR practices showed they weren’t even taken interviews with minority applicants.  IBM and others have increased employment marketing towards minorities to increase the awareness in these communities - the response has been greater number of interviews, and hires of minorities.

For all the indignation against the US  ”Muscling Latin America” as The Nation reports or its  discussion of a black “Progressive for New Orleans”,  these commentaries are brought to you by a fairly homogenous group.  The Left readily insinuates conservatives have racist motivations- most recently with Oath Keepers and the Tea Party movement.   It capitalizes on cases where a Republican acts in a way that could be construed as racist- ie: recently when Sen. Coburn said then Supreme Court  nominee Sotomayor had some “splainin to do”.  It was silent (or supportive) when Harry Reid referred to Obama and the (lack of) a “Negro dialect”.   It attacks the racial composition of the RNC, but is blind to the lack of diversity in its own ranks.

In an article on The Atlantic entitled “In defense of double standards”, Marc Ambinder states, “But it is certainly true that the Republican Party’s recent history on race almost requires any reasonable observer to treat a racially insensitive comment by a Republican differently from a racially insensitive comment by a Democrat.”  But it is perhaps by this logic, liberals exonerate themselves from self-reflection when they are entrusted to respect diversity in their own lives.  From my perspective, knowing that actions are the surer indicator of true belief, it is difficult to take liberal haranguing of the Right on race by these journals seriously given their own utter lack of diversity.