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MADE MEN?: Does a scattershot list of gay Timesmen a mafia make? According to Out magazine's media-heavy Power 50 list, which ranked several New York Times reporters a collective seventh on the list, it does, even if many of its made men don't actually know each other. "Yes, there really is a queer cabal in the Eastern elite media, and it works on West 43rd Street in New York City," reads the accompanying text, citing T magazine editor Stefano Tonchi, assistant managing editor Richard Berke, national correspondent Adam Nagourney, advertising columnist Stuart Elliot, style reporter Eric Wilson, theater critic Ben Brantley and restaurant critic Frank Bruni.
As for the use of the 'M' word related to the assorted journalists, Aaron Hicklin, editor of Out, told WWD: "The Times still has an old-fashioned power that I think the Web has tried to replace but been less successful at. It's still a cultural arbiter….Should we have used the word mafia? Only inasmuch as mafia is shorthand for people whose combined weight is fearsome." And according to Out, these Timesmen are "one group you don't want to run into in a dark alley."
"What are we going to do?" wondered Elliot. "Beat them with the Sunday Times?"
"It's just nomenclature," said Brantley dismissively. "I didn't even know some of those men were gay." Asked if he had since gotten in touch with his fellow mafia members, Brantley said: "Oh, God no." — Irin Carmon
WAITING TIME: While real estate magnate Sam Zell is moving forward with his accepted offer to buy the Tribune Co., some reporters at The Los Angeles Times sit in a holding pattern, waiting for the next shoe to drop. One source in the newsroom gathered that 40 to 50 more layoffs are expected, "and people seem pretty resigned to that fact." The source added that there is a general malaise in the newsroom, with many jaded and pessimistic reporters "acting like they just don't trust their parents anymore."
As for the use of the 'M' word related to the assorted journalists, Aaron Hicklin, editor of Out, told WWD: "The Times still has an old-fashioned power that I think the Web has tried to replace but been less successful at. It's still a cultural arbiter….Should we have used the word mafia? Only inasmuch as mafia is shorthand for people whose combined weight is fearsome." And according to Out, these Timesmen are "one group you don't want to run into in a dark alley."
"What are we going to do?" wondered Elliot. "Beat them with the Sunday Times?"
"It's just nomenclature," said Brantley dismissively. "I didn't even know some of those men were gay." Asked if he had since gotten in touch with his fellow mafia members, Brantley said: "Oh, God no." — Irin Carmon
WAITING TIME: While real estate magnate Sam Zell is moving forward with his accepted offer to buy the Tribune Co., some reporters at The Los Angeles Times sit in a holding pattern, waiting for the next shoe to drop. One source in the newsroom gathered that 40 to 50 more layoffs are expected, "and people seem pretty resigned to that fact." The source added that there is a general malaise in the newsroom, with many jaded and pessimistic reporters "acting like they just don't trust their parents anymore."
