Sexist Coverage in NY Times of BlogHer Conference

Today’s New York Times covers this year’s BlogHer conference in its Fashion and Style pages, a blatantly sexist effort to contribute to the nearly universal attack on women by the US dominated corporate media. The report states that though fifty percent of bloggers are women, they have mostly failed to succeed financially and that women political bloggers are not taken seriously by their male counterparts and by major media. A primary reason offered for these failures is that:
“women are taught not to be aggressive and analytical in the way that the political blogosphere demands, and are more likely to receive blog comments on how they look, rather than what they say.”
I contrast this egregious propaganda effort by the US corporate media’s most prestigious organ with coverage of last year’s BlogHer conference on these pages.
I also note an article by Chris Hedges from Truthdig in June after the death of entertainer/regime propagandist Tim Russert:
“We were repeatedly told by these television courtiers, people like Tom Brokaw and Wolf Blitzer, that this talk show host was one of our nation’s greatest journalists, as if sitting in a studio, putting on makeup and chatting with Dick Cheney or George W. Bush have much to do with journalism.
“No journalist makes $5 million a year. No journalist has a comfortable, cozy relationship with the powerful. No journalist believes that acting as a conduit, or a stenographer, for the powerful is a primary part of his or her calling. Those in power fear and dislike real journalists. Ask Seymour Hersh and Amy Goodman how often Bush or Cheney has invited them to dinner at the White House or offered them an interview.”
Though some reporters for the Times are true journalists, the paper as a whole is part of the corporate media that are aiding the Bush regime and its backers to effect an authoritarian agenda of suppression of women, minorities, “undesirables” of all sorts and truth. A primary tool of this suppresion, used on the anti-war movement for example, is to trivialize and discount, as in this report on the BlogHer conference.
Thank you to the WIP for continuing to offer an alternative to male dominated propaganda masquerading as journalism.
Thank you to the courageous editors who persevere in spite of financial challenges and the policy of discounting work such as you do. Your results are invaluable.