The New York Times Does BlogHer Later Than My Last Period

The New Yorks Times Sunday Styles Section published a long piece this weekend on the BlogHer conference that took place opposite Netroots Nation more than a week ago. While it was entitled "Blogging's Glass Ceiling" and touched on one of my favorite topics — the relative lack of prominence of female bloggers, and especially political female bloggers, in the top of the blogosphere — it might well have been titled "Blogging's Glass Ceiling At The New York Times." We explain.

The first criticism we read of the piece complained that it appeared in the paper's 'Sunday Styles' section whereas a piece about male bloggers wouldn't. I have to take issue with that, since the 'Styles' section ran a piece about male bloggers (including Crappy Hour guest Spencer Ackerman) about 5 months ago. So, it's not exactly true that the Styles section isn't the appropriate place for the piece per se.

However, it is interesting that BlogHer took place the same weekend at the DailyKos mega-conference Netroots Nation, a bit of a sore subject with some of the political bloggers at BlogHer who called the "scheduling conflict" disappointing. NetRoots Nation had guest appearances by Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi, which would've garnered headlines regardless of where they appeared. But, a cursory search of the Times' archives shows no less than 10 stories filed with the paper or its blogs during Netroots Nation, including several on panel discussions held at the conference. This weekend's story on BlogHer was the first the Times had filed about the event.

Was a panel discussion on the use of profanity in political blogging of more pressing important to Times readers than Michelle Obama's first blog post or the aforementioned discussion of how to get taken seriously as a woman political blogger (both of which were mentioned in passing amid a rundown of corporate sponsors)? Or is the Times just trying to prove the point of the BlogHer founders and users — that women just don't get taken quite as seriously as men? Maybe we should ask Julia Allison, or the 5 other pretty bloggers that ought to be on magazine covers. She, at least, seems to get plenty of press.

Blogging’s Glass Ceiling [NY Times]
Why Are All The Big Political Bloggers Men? [Glamocracy]
New York Times Thinks Women Bloggers Are a Fashion Story [the f word]
Washington Doesn’t Sleep Here [NY Times]
Easing Off Online Obscenities [NY Times]
Five Female Bloggers (Not Named Julia Allison) Who Should Be On The Cover Of A Magazine [The Frisky]

Send an email to Megan Carpentier, the author of this post, at askalobbyist@gmail.com.

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