Wonkette

Have you been following The Great “Doomed by Diversity” Debate? A tentpole topic over at Romenesko, it centers on a Harry Jaffe column quoting New Yorker writer Jeffery Goldberg on his experience at the Washington Post: “Jeff Goldberg’s career at the Post was doomed by diversity…Goldberg was up for a full-time job, he says, when an editor took him aside and said, ‘We would like to hire you, but we have to hire a Hispanic for that slot.’” There is little to no news involved: Ooh, the Post makes diversity hires!?! Jack Shafer has an opinion on it!?? But it has given the Romenesko letter-writers a new lens through which to view their navels, though, ironically, it’s also prompted Jayson Blair to look up from the mirror. The truth-challenged ex-Timesian writes sympathetically:

For all those whose careers are doomed by diversity, I wish that God graces you with a consolation prize like a job at The New Yorker. I know, working at The Post and The Times, is such an honor, but you know, I’ve heard rumors that those gigs at The New Yorker are pretty good.

Rumors, eh? Guess Blair doesn’t want to go out on a limb without checking it out for himself. MORE »

Romenesko has snippets from a NYT article about Les Moonves and his plans to “break the mold” of the CBS News division in attempt to “enlarge” and “bring down the median age” of its audience. (Read: More than a dozen, not dead.) What caught our attention:

“‘The news anchor Andrew wants to use is not surprising,’’ Moonves had told me, referring to John Roberts, the chief White House correspondent for CBS and one of Heyward’s leading choices (not the hot, gay one). ‘‘That’s bothering me. On the one hand, we could have a newscast like ‘The Big Breakfast’ in England, where women give the news in lingerie. Or there’s ‘Naked News,’ which is on cable in England. I saw a clip of it. It’s a woman giving the news as she’s getting undressed. And then, on the other hand, you could have two boring people behind a desk. Our newscast has to be somewhere in between.’’

This sounds a lot like having John Roberts give the news from behind a desk while undressing from lingerie over breakfast, which could make us lose our lunch. MORE »