Re: Diversity in Post Columnists

My column last week calling for more diversity in Post opinion columnists brought jocular snipes in the newsroom and a barrage of e-mails and calls from readers, many disagreeing with me. So readers will get their say today.

Amy Alexander of Silver Spring, an occasional Post contributor, wrote: "I am guessing you will get a lot of mail that will accuse you of advocating for quotas or reverse discrimination despite your observation in the column's final take that adding more minorities and women columnists does NOT mean tossing out white men. The Post's future survival hangs . . . on its ability to appeal to and reflect this region's changing racial demographics. A key hallmark of a great newspaper is the ability to publish columnists who get readers to think in new and challenging ways."

Douglas Dribben of Woodstock, Md., expressed the views of many: "Rather than the stereotypical diversity, wouldn't The Post benefit more from a diversity of opinions than a diversity of editors? Yours is a racist, sexist, stereotyping view -- ascribing to white males a common view, while ascribing to minorities and females a different view." Actually, I don't think the views of women and minorities are monolithic any more than I think that of white men's opinions.

Wendell Harris of San Diego was really ticked. "Whichever racial-gender balancing act The Post comes up with will still leave the news product still mostly fit for lining the can. If that. Besides, Ms. Howell in her silly high school paper ramblings left out lots of victims and potential contributors. How about more transsexuals, gays, polygamists . . . terrorists, conservatives. Forget hiring more disabled, you've got that covered already with Ms. Howell." Thank you, Mr. Harris. Moving right along . . .

Jong-on Hahm of Potomac wrote: "I've often wondered . . . if the writers lived in the same diverse city that I know. Any article with an ethnic bent seemed to be of the 'take a glimpse into another culture' variety. Women's voices would be especially welcome. Some of the male columnists do try (gamely) to stand in others' shoes, but they sound so uncomfortable in those pointy-toed high heels."

Joy Matkowski of Enola, Pa., said Post columnists are too often cut from the same cloth: "Somehow, in reading the Post op-ed columnists, I get the impression they all were in the same fraternity at the same upper-tier college (by the grace of being born to alumni), had very similar career trajectories, and now live in the same neighborhood, where they occasionally accidentally encounter one another while walking their trendy dogs. . . . There's a sameness of perception, an establishmentarianism, a disdain of the citizenry, a fawning on the wise men and the sensible people no matter how unwise and senseless they turn out to be, and an obliviousness to their prognosticating failures in past columns. Could you hire some people who notice . . . the emperor isn't wearing clothes?"

Andy Moursund of Kensington said the paper is too establishment: "I've been a Post reader for -- let's just say forever -- and that sense of corporate impenetrability has always been a sticking point for a lot of people, regardless of demographic category. A good newspaper shouldn't restrict itself to the affiliated elite." He would publish more letters and "print only letters from people with no political, business or interest group affiliations. I guarantee you that will uncover a new talent pool of writers and columnists from all races, sexes and points of view, who until now have looked upon The Post as just another gray, corporate institution with a big, wide moat around its castle gates."

Thomas DePriest of Falls Church called for another kind of diversity. "How odd that neither you nor the management of The Post recognizes the absence of any openly gay male or lesbian voices among the Post's opinion writers."

Judy Warner of Rohrersville, Md., wrote : "I am insulted by your column. I do not care about the ratio of men to women in the Post's columns. I care that columnists are interesting and informative, and that some of them represent my beliefs. I am conservative, and I find The Post op-ed page usually quite good. And most of its columnists are well-informed and literate. . . . I feel represented by people who share my principles, not my genitals."

Some readers wanted opinion outside the Beltway and the mainstream. Violet Cauthon of Las Cruces, N.M., wrote: "My opinion . . . would be to ask for not so much diversity in male/female/minority writers as geographical diversity. How about having a guest columnist every week from a city outside the Beltway . . . who speaks to middle America and not the punditocracy?"

Reader Richard DiMatteo, also from San Diego, asked: "Where is someone who will be truly critical of the status quo? More pablum isn't the answer. I've always wondered why American papers didn't widen their editorial and opinion pages to the contributors to [British] publications like the Independent or the Manchester Guardian. The writing is awesome and contains an entirely different frame of reference. Your paper should have a weekly review of the world press, with summaries and links in the online editions." Great idea. I'll send it to washingtonpost.com.

There ought to be a place for views outside, as DiMatteo called it, "the majoritarian culture."

Deborah Howell can be reached at 202-334-7582 or atombudsman@washpost.com.