This is what happens when you have a bunch of old dudes writing about young rising female stars, a six-sentence paragraph that’s as gross and leering as Barstool Sports’ comments section or The Chive. What we’re talking about is the blurb for Coolest (formerly “Hottest”) Female Celebrity in our annual Best Of issue last week. Apologies first go to Danni & Kris, the super-talented folksy duo that formed the subject of our blurb. We are sorry to you both for objectifying you and hope you can forgive us. We’re also sorry to you, dear readers, knowing that you’ve come to expect much better from your friendly neighborhood producer of national and local award-winning journalism, in terms of general civic stewardship and even attempts at dumb humor. We also have to offer a mea culpa to diversity. Our newsroom has been far too male (and far too white and cis, but that’s another story) for far too long. We hope to change this over the coming months, when one of our (white, male, cis) associate editors leaves, vacating his Weekly chair. To make sure our pool of candidates is as diverse as possible, we will begin our selection process by posting the open position on career websites devoted to diversity first before expanding the search to the general population. And though our publisher doesn’t know this yet, I’m signing us up, everyone in the Weekly building, for diversity training.
