The Complicated Gender and Racial Politics at Play in the Hiring of Dean Baquet
How an historic moment in the news business is undercut by race and gender politics
Dean Baquet’s historic new role at The New York Times seen as a mixed bag for diversity
Gossip overshadowed the history-making moment for Dean Baquet. He became the first African-American to head the venerable New York Times. The focus, instead, was on whether gender politics — or something else — played a part in his predecessor’s ouster.
Dean Baquet is the first African American executive editor of The New York Times.
The New Yorker‘s Ken Auletta quoted unnamed sources who said former editor Jill Abramson was fired because she clashed with higher ups; NPR’s David Folkenflik quoted unnamed sources saying money was the “final rupture” to the relationship; BuzzFeed’s Kate Aurthur recounted internal squabbles“friends” told her about that led to Abramson’s exit; Politico‘s Dylan Byers and The New York Times‘ own David Carr and Ravi Somaiya speculated that Baquet’s anger over Abramson’s attempt to install a co-managing editor without his consent precipitated her abrupt departure.
Abramson’s firing is a great story, filled with intrigue and resonance for a lot of women — black and white — who have fought the good fight in corporate America. But Baquet’s promotion is an equally great story because of its historic resonance. Media watchers are doing a poor job telling both these stories in ways that do justice not only to both individuals, but also the struggles that both women and minorities have experienced in white male dominated corporate cultures, including at The New York Times.
My main beef is that idle chatter seems to be pushing aside Baquet’s historic moment, and that his celebratory party is over before it even got started. But a friend told me that since the two stories are linked, journalists can’t tell one without the other. “That’s a fine needle to thread, I know. Especially when we deal with the intersection of race and gender,” she said.
It would help to provide a little context. Here’s the back story:
The New York Times has been sued by both minority and female journalists for the same thing: Discrimination. The book, “Girls in the Balcony,” focuses on a band of exasperated women who filed a class action suit against the newspaper in 1974. “Of the 21 names on the masthead in the early 1970s – encompassing both the editors and business-side executives – not one belonged to a woman,” according to a 1992 piece published in The American Journalism Review. Male journalists were paid $52 more, on average, than women journalists. Women’s salaries ranked at the bottom, with the lone black woman journalist ranked dead last, AJR reported.
New York Times managers were indignant, but wound up paying $350,000 to settle the lawsuit. The 550 women represented in the class action received $233,500 in back pay and the newspaper agreed to an affirmative action hiring plan. Still, the Times had not learned its lesson. Three years later, 15 minority employees sued the newspaper claiming racial discrimination in hiring and promotion practices.
Judith Cummings, who died last week, received a glowing obituary in the Times. But in 1977 she was one of the people who sued the newspaper. Cummings testified that “minority reporters were often left languishing on local beats while their white counterparts moved up,” the Times reported this week inremembrance of Cummings.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault (the first black journalist to graduate from my Alma mater, The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism), Earl Caldwell and Roger Wilkins were also part of the federal lawsuit. Once again, in 1981, The New York Times settled out of court. The newspaper established a minority training and recruitment program and promised to give minority journalists more serious consideration when it came to promotions and assignments. Cummings received her first metropolitan beat assignment in 1981; she became the Time’s first black bureau chief four years later.
Photo Credit: The New York Times
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