In this week’s “Mossback,” Seattle Weekly editor Skip Berger refers to the Weekly as the “matriarch of Seattle,” bragging that when New Times first courted the Weekly - in 1997 - the paper was a “matriarchy… because a majority of readers (not to mention many senior managers) were women.”

What Berger doesn’t mention is that under his leadership, the Weekly fired or demoted nearly every woman in senior management. Before Berger’s most recent stint as editor, the Weekly’s publisher, assistant publisher, editor, and managing editor were women. Now three of those positions are held by middle-aged men, leaving just two women (art director Karen Steichen and recently hired deputy managing editor Lynn Jacobsen) in senior management. (The assistant publisher position was eliminated; meanwhile, former Weekly calendar editor Michaelangelos Matos was re-hired to replace the two young women who were filling the role of music editor). Now only four writing and editing positions at the Weekly - Jacobsen’s, plus three lower-level staff writer positions - are filled by women.

Sorry, Skip - being a “male feminist” doesn’t qualify you as a matriarch.