Chris Lehmann's seat on the Chinatown bus to DC is barely cold and already he's lobbing a salvo back at his former homestead, taking aim at the New York Times' recent series on class in America. Lehmann says that the NYT is incabable of exploring the complexities of the issue from their lofty position on high: "Social class is at the core of the Times' institutional identity, which prevents the paper from offering the sort of dispassionate, critically searching discussion the subject demands." (Gawker pointed this out in a telling juxtaposition between the series and the Times' media kit, which celebrates the affluence and high educational achievements of the typical Times reader)

Lehmann's thrust is that the same paper that glorifies the well-born, moneyed elite in the "Sunday Vows" section can't go far beyond marvelling at how the other half lives, relying on comparisons to demonstrate the gulf (Uma Thurman munching daintily on a spread prepared by faceless minimum-wage Mexicans; a lopsided marriage between a car salesman and an heiress) and examples of how different the mindsets are, thus implicitly limiting of social mobility:

When first stricken with her heart attack, Gora dismissed her husband's suggestion that she was seriously ill and needed an ambulance, and instead tried to collect herself with a glass of vodka; against explicit doctors' advice, she sneaks cigarettes and doughnuts, and even clips a cockamamie diet from a Polish magazine that permits her to eat generous portions of fried food and steak. And so [writer Janny] Scott's telltale moment of exasperation carries an unmistakable subtext: There's just nothing to be done with these people.

The upshot, for Lehmann, is that "the paper of record, with its condescending cultural exoticism, once again dwells lovingly on behavior and culture rather than on cold economic facts," focusing instead on indicators of being lower class (like his description of a front-page photo of a subject lying on his couch with a beer) rather than the circumstances that skew them there (i.e. having to work six-day weeks of 10-hour shifts).

Choire Sicha, meanwhile, points out a telling yet unexplored fact:

Buried deep in today's New York Times article on college drop-outs and class mobility: "the upper middle class so dominates elite universities that high-income students, on average, actually get slightly more financial aid from colleges than low-income students do."

That it happens is one thing; but Lehman points out that the fact that it's buried, unexplored and unsatisfyingly acknowledged is part of a larger handicap that damns the series from the start.

And now, it's time to shop for some Prada pumps on Bluefly. Ta-ta, darlings!

All classed up and nowhere to go [Boston Phoenix]
Class Matters: The Game [Gawker]
The Power of Our Brand and Our Audience [NYT Co.]