MediaBistro is reporting Dana Milbank will become the Washington Post’s newest Sunday Op-Ed columnist. Milbank, you may know, is infamous for his “Mouthpiece Theatre” sketch about the Obama beer summit following an incident with Harvard professor Henry Gates and Cambridge, Mass. police last summer. The Washington Post pulled the video after it drew criticism from Women Action & Media, and others, for suggesting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would drink “Mad Bitch” beer. They also killed the theatre video series.
In a Post story about the episode, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said it was “a serious lapse. . . . . It’s really beneath us and not something we should engage in.”
I find it disappointing, but not surprising, that Milbank has been granted a space on the highly coveted Sunday op-ed page. The opinion pages are dominated by men. From The Op-Ed Project website:
“The op-ed pages of our nation’s newspapers are overwhelmingly dominated—80% or more—by men. Because the op-ed pages feed all other media, the under-representation of women here perpetuates and exaggerates the under-representation of women in larger ways. For example, men are:
• 84% of guests on influential Sunday morning political talk shows on TV
• 85% of nonfiction books on The New York Times best-selling
• 85-90% of radio producers
In short, public debate all but excludes half the population.”
The Op-Ed Project is a fantastic program dedicated to expanding the number of women contributors to the opinion pages. The women-only “Write to Change the World” seminars are accessible, affordable and effective. Check them out. You may not think you’re an “expert” in anything. But you’ll be surprised what you discover in these seminars.
Another great organization “dedicated to increasing the supply of commentary by women and their participation in the media” is the National Women’s Editorial Forum.
Ladies, we need to raise our voices. So-called public opinion isn’t so public. It’s mostly male opinion.
My favorite was a video Milbank put together about Conservative Congressman Tom Davis speaking in a Unitarian Church.
At 3:30 into the video, Milbank says “Davis couldn’t get out of there fast enough,” as the footage shows Davis calmly and slowly exiting the room.
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