If Diane Sawyer or Katie Couric suddenly stopped anchoring their broadcasts on ABC and CBS, people would probably take note of it and you'd probably see more than a few pieces written about it by Media writers and bloggers, as well as more than a few mentions on various network and cable news broadcasts. But here we are with more than 30 days gone by since the last column by the Queen of The New York Times was published back on Dec. 26th, and as far as I can tell, not a peep has been said or written about her disappearance.
http://www.britethorn.com
Now typically, when one of the NYTimes columnists takes some time off the paper will make note of it SOMEWHERE in the paper. Often it will be mentioned at the bottom of another columnist's piece. For instance, since Thomas Friedman and Maureen Dowd both appear every Sunday and Wednesday, if she were to take the day off they would make mention of it at the bottom of Mr. Friedman's column. Or, if one of them were to take an extended leave of absence, the Times would mention it at the bottom of the columnist's last published column, along with a reason. They would also make mention of it on their web pages devoted to the biographies of their columnists. Thomas Friedman is, at the moment, on a sabbatical writing his next book, something he does every two or three years. This fact was mentioned at the bottom of his last column along with his biographical material on the paper's website.
But not so with Maureen Dowd. If you Google her name, you come up with no recent news about her. No public appearances or mention of her anywhere. If you search for her on The NYTimes, the only recent postings that come up are from readers asking where she is in the talkback section of one of their blogs.
Now, of course Ms. Dowd has every right to her privacy, but as such a high profile media figure, its just very strange that the Paper has made no mention of her disappearance. A simple declaration that she's on extended leave, a sabbatical or simply "she's ill" would do just fine. I'd even take a lie rather than this big question mark that's hovering over the spot on the OP-ED page every Sunday and Wednesday.
Wherever she is, I wish her well and hope to see her back in print soon! I'd really love to know her thoughts on Keith Olberman, the Giffords shooting, the new balance of power in D.C. and a lot of other things!