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Schizophrenia. Bradlee and his colleagues are clearly disturbed by the complaint—and the problem that inspired it. He nonetheless ran an editorial-page piece by Ben Bagdikian about the charges, as well as a column by Nicholas von Hoffman. Both writers were sympathetic to the blacks' position. Wrote Bagdikian: "The failure to place blacks in influential positions in the media is far more than a failure of the journalistic trade; [it is a failure] to reach the consciousness of the rest of a country faced with the prospect of cultural schizophrenia." It was an unusual airing of a paper's internal troubles. "We have not yet been successful," Bradlee says, "in matching our commitment to hire, assign and promote blacks with our commitment to hire, assign and promote the very best journalists we can find to fill the needs we have."
This seems to be Bradlee's polite way of saying that the Post has been having a difficult time finding as many qualified blacks as it would like. That is a problem encountered by many large publications that have been trying to go beyond a few token blacks. For a variety of reasons, journalism has not been a profession to which many middle-class blacks have traditionally aspired.
Even if the Post wanted to meet the demand of 35% to 45% blacks in all editorial categories, it would be unable to do so without causing an upheaval. Instead, management promoted Brandon, hired two black interns for the local staff and Associated Press Reporter Austin Scott for the national staff. "We hope to be doing more," says Bradlee. This did not satisfy the seven dissidents. They gained the support of 26 other blacks on the paper and went ahead with their formal complaint. At the Washington Star last week, black staffers met to consider what action they should bring against their management.
At the Post's sister publication, Newsweek, management was coping with a different kind of problem. When a friend twitted Osborn Elliott about a recent ad comparing the magazine to George Wallace as a "force to be reckoned with," he came back with a play en a familiar TV commercial: "Please don't squeeze the chairman." Chairman? Indeed. As part of a major executive shuffle, Elliott, 47, is giving up the somewhat ambiguous assignment of editor in chief and president to become Newsweek's board chairman. "The business guys," he explained, "thought that I was not spending enough time on the business side." Elliott insists, however, that he will continue to have general supervision over both editorial and business affairs. Kermit Lansner, 49, continues as editor, and will retain control of week-to-week editorial operations.
The thrust of the changes seems to be financial rather than journalistic. Frederick ("Fritz") Beebe, who has been chairman of both the magazine and its parent, the Washington Post Co., keeps his corporate post. Gibson McCabe, 61, who left the presidency last year to become vice chairman, steps back up into his former job. Robert Campbell, 54, moves up from executive vice president to publisher. Campbell replaces Harry Thompson, 51, who had served as publisher for just a year and is evidently being moved aside; as the new vice president for staff affairs, he will assist Elliott in running a number of subsidiary operations.