June 11, 2003
Race For the Top at the Times
Handicapping the Race at the Times
Dean Baquet: 2-1. He’s popular in the Times’s newsroom and he’s done a whale of a job as the managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. It’s not fair to say he’s one of the best African-American editors in the country because he’s one of the best editors, period. In an interview on Friday, Sulzberger said he didn’t know why people assumed the editor had to be in his mid-50s: “I’d love to know whose sense that is. Nobody who is going to be involved with this process has that sense.” Still, Baquet is young (he’s in his mid-40s), and he doesn’t have much experience with foreign news.
Posted by ronn at June 11, 2003 05:22 PM
hmm...So if he's one of the best editors period, why do we even need to mention that he's black?
Because the automatic assumption would be that he is white. So why not mention his Blackness?
The writer has made Baquet's race important by bringing it up in the first place. Although given all that has transpired at the Times recently, his inclusion in the pool to replace Raines would most definitely see white wing assholes screaming that it's another affirmative action move.
Don't hold your breath waiting for another top Black editor at the Times. Gerald Boyd's resignation was predicated on Raines' arrogance and Ye Olde Boy Network.