Diversity, New York Times Style

The New York Times usually puts the part of diversity having to do with women's rights in the style section, the section that used to be the women's pages in olden days and the section which even today has lots of fashion articles.  That way serious people know to avoid those articles.

But the august newspaper also has its own particular style about general diversity among its writers, best exemplified by the hiring of Bret Stephens and the ensuing brouhaha, and the interesting question when it's acceptable for opinion columnists to have their own data, not checked for accuracy, rather than just their own opinions about data most people accept as valid and accurate.

At this point it might be beneficial to have a look at the stable of op-ed columnists at the Times.  I count many more stallions than mares among those who have a permanent oatbag to munch from, and out of the two regular female op-ed columnists I could find, Maureen Dowd and Gail Collins, only one (Collins) is somewhat feminist, whereas the other (Dowd) has rarely met a powerful woman she didn't hate (unless it was in her mirror).

The next stalls are homes for Ross Douthat and David Brooks, both conservative writers whose views on women are either literally antediluvian (Douthat) or based on the fascinating speculations of the more misogynist types of evolutionary psychologists (Brooks).  And for many years the Times gave op-ed stable space for John Tierney whose major shtick is the inferiority of the female sex.

Yet the Times appears to be comfortable with that stall allocation, though, clearly a climate skeptic is urgently required to make certain that diversity is properly represented.