Over at TAPPED, Dana responds to the charge that NYT columnist Bob Herbert is boring (as T.A. Frank recently argued in the Washington Monthly):
Part of the problem here is how we measure influence. [...]As for blogs, it's no surprise that the DailyKos family doesn't link to Herbert. The majority of male netroots bloggers have proven again and again that they have little interest in domestic social justice crusades centered around identity. The civil rights and women's rights wings of the Democratic coalition are far less important to their worldview than "muscular progressivism" in foreign policy, a stance largely calibrated to win elections. That's not a bad thing, but it doesn't make for a movement particularly interested in Herbert's stories of inner city poverty and persistent racism.
Frank suggests that the format of statistics about pernicious social trends embedded within personal stories is ineffective, and certainly not well-suited to 800-word columns. I'd respond that Kristof won a Pulitzer doing exactly that. That returns us to the mystery of why, exactly, Herbert isn't influential among media elites. To the extent that's true, I'd guess it's more our fault than his.
In other words, Herbert's columns are plenty interesting to people who are invested in the issues he writes about. Regular Feministing readers are, of course, aware of Jessica's massive crush on Herbert. Guess we should be showing him the link-love more often -- especially now that his columns are out from behind the TimesSelect subscriber wall.
UPDATE: Jill has a post on Herbert's column today.
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Thank God for Bob Herbert. I don't always feel his columns, but more often than not, I do (to be fair, I've only been reading the columns since sophomore/junior year of HS and I'm twenty now.
Anyone remember those horrible shootings in Boulder and Pennsylvania, where all the victims were girls? The media focused on the Pennsylvania shooting for it's occurrence in an Amish town and the President talked about, um, BULLYING after the Colorado one, if I remember correctly.
Only Bob Herbert called it what it was---a "hate crime." The Boulder shooter was a drifter who sexually assaulted at least one of the girls and specifically had the boys leave the room. The Pennsylvania shooter had duct date and a stun gun in his car; he had gone "hunting" because he was having dreams about molesting girls (false memories or something).
And recently he's written about human trafficking and "legal" prostitution and the reality of sex workers, even with unions and increased awareness of their status as easy rape/assault victims.
I just initiated a Women's Studies course in the high school where I teach. Bob Herbert's columns have provided me with material on subjects no one else is touching. He brought a gender lens to the recent school shootings and questioned male culture. This is invaluable to my work. Herbert is a hero, period.
Sign me up as a Hebert supporter. Thank heavens someone has his point of view and the position to make it known.
I share your shame in not linking to Herbert more often. Now that the TimesSelect wall was torn down, I think I am going to be doing so more often.