An arts section report on the naming of Christopher Bedford as director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art includes this passage:
Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, who has led the charge on diversity issues, said he felt comfortable with the selection of Bedford. "While I'm disappointed that a diverse candidate wasn't chosen," Walker said in a telephone interview, "no museum leader is more committed to diversity than Chris Bedford."
What is Darren Walker doing in this article? He's not on the board of the San Francisco museum. The Ford Foundation isn't a major funder of the museum. Anytime a white male gets named to any job anywhere, the New York Times article about it is now going to include a quote from Darren Walker passing judgment on whether it's acceptable?
And how does the Times let Walker get away with describing Bedford as not "a diverse candidate"? Diversity comes in lots of dimensions—political, religious, personal experience. Bedford reportedly played college football. How many other art museum directors have had that experience?
The Times article doesn't disclose that previous highly favorable coverage in the New York Times of Walker and the Ford Foundation was followed by at least two grants by the Ford Foundation supporting the New York Times, which is a for-profit company controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family. The Times Company has been schnorring for charitable assistance from the Ford Foundation, while simultaneously claiming to potential and current shareholders, and in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that its business is booming. Maybe the Times is buttering up Walker by including him in the article in the hope that he will dole out more Ford Foundation money to prop up the Ochs-Sulzberger family business, which has lost more than a billion dollars in market capitalization over the past five months or so.