why they call it the “elite media”

I’m been stuck ona couple unexamined class assumptions in the New York Times as of late.
First a reasonably cognizant article examining some middle class or even lower middle class entries into university, but told in a quasi-anthropology way — the line that throws me for a loop is that there is no applying for the elite colleges here — they want to go where they feel they belong.  Or, you know, given that they’re not at the very tip top of “genius” level — the uber 13 year old chess masters and on — and thus wouldn’t get full scholarship, somewhere where they might half afford.
And then there’s this odd line in a Nicholas Kristoff op-ed defending arts funding.

Singer has a terrific recent book, “Ethics in the Real World,” that wrestles with how much we should donate to charity, and whether wearing a $10,000 watch is a sign of good taste, or of shallow narcissism.

Raise your head if you, out there in the real world, have had this real world concern in looking at your wrist and having guilt pains that this  $10,000 watch you are wearing might comes across as too ostentatious.

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