- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
I remain shocked at the blatant use of "family" within the media as the basis for ascendancy.
I am thinking particularly of Tim Russert's self-congratulatory comment that the Irish rule the media, and they need to stick together.
Perhaps that is why the news media is so doggone bad.
Not because of the Irish mafia per se, but because merit has not been established as the criteria for getting a job- not at all. It shows.
I am reminded of my stint not so many years ago at what was then the largest law firm in a northeastern state. There were only two African American associates at the firm, and the two were the only Ivy-league educated lawyers.
The black associate who who was up for partner, a Harvard Law grad, told me she doubted she'd get the nod. She was smart, well-educated, beautiful, savvy. She was not one of them.
She was right in her prediction.
There must be some restraint placed on the self-congratulatory and smug ghettoization that has come to defimne the mediocrity of the American aristocracy.
Some months ago I would watch MSNBC in horror and disbelief (and amusement, because it was so pitiful) as the Abrams kid botched the news, misstated basic legal doctrine and fouled his lines fed by the teleprompter. He was smug. He was really, really bad.
He had no business being in front of a camera. His Dad got him there.
Nikka, similarly, is not good. There are stronger women who also show well.
I see it in polical races all the time, in both parties.
If we have the same folks and same families doing the same stuff, we will foreclose opportunity for other, better qualified people, and therefore remain mediocre. By the way, I think the Jacksons and Fords and Kennedys and Clintons don't think it is a problem.
Remember Clinton's look at Obama during the debates? It was a stunned "how dare he" look. Truly. Not because he's black, but because she was anointed.
