I've been trying to decide what I've wanted to add to the Maureen Dowd pile-on. On twitter I've already made my feelings felt about the journo: I think she is an embarrassment to women political commentators (although Anika declared I should have ended the sentence at "women").
So what better than to unearth my own 2-year old story about Maureen Dowd from "The best DNC moment" :: culturekitchen:
So, during the general session there was a discussion lull involving financial reports. I stepped out to get a soda --an endeavor that at the horrid Washington Hilton took an eternity to complete.
When I come back to my seat, I see a woman sitting on my chair --notwithstanding the fact I had left my laptop, purse, camera, podcasting gear and basically everything that no self-respecting blogdiva would blog without.
My first thought was "bitch, get off my seat". Being the marginally professional diva that I am, I calmly requested the woman's attention and said to her : "Excuse me, you're in my seat."
Now, you have to understand something : This woman happened to be sitting in the credentialed bloggers section. This was where a big chunk of the top bloggers were covering the action. We were even making fun of Ezra loosing his coolness credentials because he was working that day and had to sit in the press section.
So when I come back to my seat, eventhough I found this woman marginally familiar, she was not anybody I recognized --and honey, I pride myself in knowing everybody that is anybody in the blogosphere.
So Ms. Thing looks at me a bit askew. I apologized for the inconvenience but once again requested she leave. "Take your time", I said. And she did. The woman moved at the speed of molasses and took what seemed like an eternity to move. When she finally did, I thanked her and proceeded to get back to my blogging. She on the other hand did not leave until she left a "Hmmph" and a little hiss trailing behind her.
I was amused because, being the blogdiva, I can respect a little attitude here and there.
Then I get an email with the subject line Best DNC moment : The look of shock and confusion on [her face was priceless - it was pretty clear she's not used to being told that she has to move so someone else can sit down.
"She" was Maureen Dowd.
If this is not an allegory of what bloggers have to put up with when dealing with the jealousy, sabotage or outright plagiarism of journalists backed by a big brand, I don't know what else would be.
Oh yeah, her plagiarizing of one of the most respected blogger (and independent journalists) on the planet.
Dowd uses her status as holder of a vagina and employee of one of the most prestigious publications in the planet to basically excrete her pseudo-intellectual rants about how democrats as worse than sissy-girls but politically castrated girly men. She not only is a reliable basher of "the party of liberals" but she goes about it by saying that, since they're more like women than men, then their ineffectual.
You know, kill two birds with one bigoted stone.
Mind you, I wouldn't mind her rants if she came out and said clearly she's not a feminist but a misanthrope but therein lies the rub: She hass used her status as "voice of liberated women everywhere" to push an anti-woman agenda. And I'll wager that it's not even for anything other than fear of competition.
Yeah. I dislike Maureen Dowd because the woman is so petty she would never, ever go out of her way to promote other women. When was the last time you saw Dowd campaigning her newspaper to get more women op/ed writers on their roster? And I can't even wrap my head around her doing so for any women of color.
So there's my contribution to the Maureen Dowd pile-on. Oh, and one more thing: Republicans have got to be kidding if they think the woman is like in the lefty blogosphere.





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