Diversity, Strong Editing and Moving Forward from the Shonda Rhimes Furor

By: Margaret Sullivan | New York Times

In more than two years as public editor at The Times, I’ve encountered very few subjects that have aroused as much passion and reaction as an Arts & Leisure article about the TV producer Shonda Rhimes and the stereotype of the “Angry Black Woman” the story leaned on. I wrote about it on Monday, and quickly hundreds of readers responded in deeply felt comments; my email has been overflowing with more commentary; and many people I know, inside and outside The Times, have been eager to talk about it. And other writers (Emily Nussbaum at The New Yorker, Linda Holmes at NPR, and many others) have taken it up.