What I Like...

That the lede of this story wasn't "The first woman named..." yadda, yadda. Instead, it focused on her qualifications for the job, how she presumably worked and earned her way up.

(The stodgy Reuters shows how not to do it.)

Superficial characteristics, usually immutable qualities one just happens to be born with, have for too long in recent years played too big a role in who we read. Not the primary reason readerships have fallen in recent years, but too often, a decline in quality writing accompanied the increase in diversity hiring for its own sake.

Focusing on qualifications first in this story, and not that she's a pioneering female in the position, leads one to believe maybe Big Journalism is turning a corner, recognizing that even amongst traditional "minorities" (blacks, women, gays, etc.) there isn't one way of thinking, and alternate viewpoints (ie/anti-abortion women, conservative blacks and gays) were actually getting less coverage than before the industry began to assume that only blacks can write on black issues that affect others ("It's a black thing; you wouldn't understand) etc.

No denying the almost complete political polarization we see out there, hopefully getting back to quality first, without excluding with a nod to diversity numbers, will up the standards of discussion on the important complex issues now facing our country.

Minorities can compete on their own merits. For more qualified minorities who have patiently worked their way up (without jumping the line) by improving their mutable skill sets, maybe Jill Abramson's promotion* is a sign of good things to come...


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*Dean Baquet's too.

Baquet, a New Orleans native, is a smooth-talking editor with a blunt style, a passion for investigative reporting and a knack for inspiring loyalty among his troops. He won a Pulitzer Prize at the Chicago Tribune in 1988, and was national editor of the New York Times when he left to become managing editor of the Los Angeles Times in 2000.