the kicker

Barefoot and Blogging (In NYT Styles)

Location! Location! Location! Sometimes, stories about blogging and bloggers make the New York Times‘ front-page. A-1. Juxtaposed with the critical stories of the day. Other times,...
July 29, 2008

Location! Location! Location!

Sometimes, stories about blogging and bloggers make the New York Times‘ front-page. A-1. Juxtaposed with the critical stories of the day. Other times, they can be found among articles about brides Botoxing their bridesmaids and advice on “awkward social situations.” In the F section.

Such was the case for the Timescoverage of the annual BlogHer conference, for which a thousand mostly female bloggers gathered recently in San Francisco. “Blogging’s Glass Ceiling,” was the headline. Sunday Styles was the section.

Erin Kotecki Vest, BlogHer’s Political Director, blasts the Times for the way it handled the story:

Perhaps, with all the talk of us being “…a corporate-sponsored Oprah-inflected version of a ’60s consciousness-raising group” [the Times] missed the part about 36 million of us taking over as power-users of the web while raising our children and supporting our families.

UPDATE: After reading his Styles section Sunday, Greg Pollowitz wrote on National Review‘s Media Blog:

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Oh, and one question for the uber-liberal, p.c. NY Times. Why are you covering a story on female citizen journalists in the “Fashion & Style” section? Sexism, thy name is Grey Lady.

UPDATE II: I am reminded of this:

An article about women in science and engineering from the New York Times, “Diversity Isn’t Rocket Science, Is It?” seems like it ought to go in the news or business section. It ran in fashion and style instead. Why? Because white lab coats and Tyvek cleanroom jumpsuits are totes the hot look this summer!

Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.