New York Times Publishes Rare 4-Essay Series on Rush Limbaugh’s Legacy — By 4 White People

According to The New York Times, they rarely commission four essays on a single figure’s death, but they did it for Rush Limbaugh this weekend with a quartet of commentaries by Ben Shapiro, Ross Douthat, Frank Bruni, and Jill Filipovic — all of whom are white.

Limbaugh’s death this week sparked an outpouring of reactions, including grief from conservatives, glee from some critics, sharp and documented criticism from others, and media obituaries that tried to straddle the line between lauding his influence and success, and acknowledging the “racism and bigotry” that underpinned it.

The Tines was singled out by Fox News for criticism of their obituary of Limbaugh, but the paper wasn’t done. They published four essays on Saturday, and Opinions Editor Kathleen Kingsbury explained why:

Times Opinion doesn’t often publish four pieces reflecting on the death of one person, but few Americans have left as big a mark on politics, media and culture as Rush Limbaugh did over the past three decades.

We decided to bring readers this week two voices from inside The Times — the columnists Ross Douthat and Frank Bruni — and two voices from outside The Times. Each has a distinctive and authoritative point of view on Limbaugh’s legacy. A big part of our mission is to convene the most compelling voices on issues of wide public interest, and, given the urgent discourse about the future of conservatism, we have tried to do that here.

Two of the essays were written by Limbaugh critics, although one of those was devoted to scolding other Limbaugh critics, and two were written by admirers of the deceased broadcaster — one of whom offered a critique of Limbaugh from a politically conservative point of view. All of them are white.

But while most other news outlets prominently mentioned racism as a defining characteristic of Limbaugh’s career even as they lauded his success and influence, that note was absent from the Times’ initial obituary.

And while Bruni and Filipovic addressed the subject of racism, the voices of those whose racial identities were the subject of that reportedly defining characteristic were not represented in the lineup of commentators enlisted by the paper to offer “a distinctive and authoritative point of view on Limbaugh’s legacy.”