CONSERVATIVE NY POST COLUMNIST SLAMS OBAMA OVER BEING BOOTED FROM PLANE, CITES ESSENCE, EBONY/JET
November 1st, 2008Writers for the NY Post, the Washington Times and the Dallas Morning News are ticked that they are not on the plane this weekend of Sen. Barack Obama.
Among them are Kirsten Powers, who rants this week that, “In fact, those reporters were bumped to make room for others from Jet and Essence, two glossy magazines targeted at African-Americans, and for a documentary unit chronicling the last days of the Obama campaign. None meet the standard of appealing to a “swing voter.”
“Worse, the campaign bumped news reporters for lifestyle magazines.
“This month’s Jet cover features a barely clothed Toni Braxton with promises of an interview about her personal trials. In the latest Essence, you can read “an intimate interview [where] . . . megastar Beyoncé dishes on her new album, Jay-Z and life in the spotlight.”
So, I decided to send Kirsten an email. Read below. You can also send her an email to: kirstenpowers@aol.com.
I noticed that you chose to single out the African American publications covering Obama that stayed on the plane.
What is pathetic is that you had the audacity to state that they didn’t qualify as a swing voter. Uh, duh? Neither does the NY Post. That’s clearly an Obama state. So using your argument, the Post doesn’t need to be on the plane. Texas is going red - my home state - so that doesn’t qualify as well.
So what’s your point?
I say get the hell over it. Essence, Ebony and Jet were covering Obama when folks like you - and your publication - didn’t give a damn about him or his candidacy. They have every right to be on that plane.
Lastly, you had the audacity to single out a story in Essence about Beyonce. Yes, she’s on the cover. But I also see that Essence has my column on the importance of voting and other critical stories. I know the previous month Essence had a detailed section on the election and other pertinent issues.
Hell, your newspaper has a TON of celebrity crap every day, namely Page Six. So if you want to cite Essence and it’s celebrity coverage, you need to also mention the “lifestyle” stuff we see in the NY Post each day.

