How a decades-long blind spot culminated in the “Angry Black Woman.”
Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed
How did the New York Times, the national paper of record, and the recipient of 114 Pulitzer Prizes, find itself with the worst television criticism section of any mainstream, popular publication? And why can't the Times write insightfully, articulately, and without embarrassing mistakes about America's defining and, at least in the last 20 years, most vital medium?
The answer is complex — and illustrates larger structural and institutional struggles that have hindered the Times in its attempt to compete in the world of 21st-century journalism.
The "Angry Black Woman" piece, as it has now come to be known, was written by the Times' chief television critic, Alessandra Stanley. It was racist, factually incorrect, and demonstrated an overarching lack of familiarity with Rhimes' work in particular and contemporary television in general.
Others have outlined exactly how and why with incision. But for those familiar with Stanley and television criticism at the Times, it was but the most recent and flagrant in a long history of gaffes, misunderstandings, and sublimated dismissals that demonstrate an insulting lack of investment in the medium. As Vox television critic Todd VanDerWerff told BuzzFeed News, "The Times thinks of TV as fundamentally vapid, so it produces dismissive criticism about the medium, and so far as I can tell, this is historically true of the publication."
Diana Walker / Life Images Collection
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