Gene Robinson: A fresh voice on the Washington Post editorial page
By Harry Jaffee
The Washingtonian
(July 22, 2005) Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr.’s best personnel move was not appointing Gene Robinson managing editor.
Downie’s decision freed Robinson to write an op-ed column, which he started in February. Judging from reaction by readers and newspapers that have snapped up his essays, Robinson’s column is a raging success, in the newspaper and on its web site.
Already 25 papers have agreed to syndicate his column, including dailies in San Francisco, Atlanta, Denver, and Phoenix.
“One by one, editors’ hearts are being taken away,” says Alan Shearer, editorial director of Washington Post Writers Group. “There’s a lot of support out there.”
And a bit of anger, too. When Robinson wrote “(White) Women We Love,” pondering why America’s damsels in distress are always white, he stopped counting the e-mail responses at 750, but one he referred to Post lawyers.
“The negative ones were a little scary,” he says. “A little too personal, a little too threatening.”
Robinson has no particular portfolio as a columnist other than his deep and wide reporting career: from covering Washington’s city hall under Marion Barry in 1980 to postings in Buenos Aires and London to a stint as Style editor. Among the Post’s regular columnists, Robinson is not a predictable conservative like George Will, a brainy economist like Robert Samuelson, or a die-hard liberal like Harold Meyerson. Robinson, 51, brings an unusual and expansive past to the Post’s pages.
A native of Orangeburg, South Carolina, he remembers that his mother loved to shop for shoes but had to enter through stores’ back door. He was one of the first black students at Orangeburg High. At the University of Michigan, he was the first African-American to edit the Michigan Daily. He came to the Post in 1980 after reporting for the San Francisco Chronicle.
When Steve Coll stepped down as Post managing editor last year, Robinson became the newsroom favorite to take his place. He was both respected and well liked among the troops. Downie chose Philip Bennett, a relative newcomer.
Even before Downie passed him over for the managing-editor job, and before he left Style, Robinson had discussed a column with Post editorial-page editor Fred Hiatt. As soon as Downie picked Bennett as his number two, Hiatt moved on Robinson.
As a columnist, Robinson often leans to the left, filling the liberal landscape vacated by the passing of Mary McGrory. But his focus reaches into social and cultural terrain not definable in political terms. He can write with authority about the Latin world because he speaks Spanish and covered South America. But nearly a third of his columns revolve around race or African-American subjects—such as Oprah, Chris Rock, Johnnie Cochran, Dave Chappelle, or Michael Jackson (four times).
Which does beg the question: Will Robinson replace Bill Raspberry, who took a buyout from the Post and now writes on contract once a week? Raspberry has told friends his days as a columnist might be numbered.
Says Alan Shearer: “As far as I’m concerned, I wish he would stay forever.”
In any case, it’s shortsighted to see Robinson in Raspberry’s place. They are distinct, and Robinson cannot be easily defined.
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Tuesday, July 26th 2005 at 2:04AM
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