It’s been fun watching the growing backlash against Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement that Hearst honcho Cathie Black would replace Joel Klein as NY chancellor of schools. I have sort of a love/hate relationship with the mayor myself — love the stance he took over the “Ground Zero mosque” controversy and wished for one moment that Obama had his balls in such situations.

But I have always hated his autocratic side, mostly as I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with my fellow Brooklynites in our losing battle against the Atlantic Yards development, which Mike helped grease the chute for. His attitude about that, as in most things, was “I know what’s best for the people of New York,” but in the appointment of Black that approach seems to be backfiring. First there are the teachers, who rightly wonder why the hell they have to be vetted and qualified to just teach kids math or history when this millionaire pal of the mayor’s can breeze into a job she knows nothing about, in a field in which she has no expertise (she sent her kids to private schools, as her parents did for her), all the while asking for their indulgence while she learns the ropes. Wouldn’t you be pissed?

Then there’s the general silence of the people in the media, the very folks who should be rushing to her defense, that has followed the shitstorm. That should tell you something right there. You know how when people are making odds on the Oscars they have to figure on the feelings of the Hollywood community: “Jeff Bridges is a good guy, he’s been doing an honorable  job in films big and small for years — let’s give him an Oscar!” The opposite might be true here. Not that I can find anyone who hates her, but there is a fair amount of resentment beneath the surface.

Bloomberg’s argument, when he isn’t busy acting offended that he even has to explain his actions, is that Black has done a bang-up job at Hearst. Really? She takes credit for bringing Oprah into the fold, though those in the know say that was really the work of Ellen Levine. And while she is proud of keeping Esquire afloat, have you tried reading it lately? Sure it’s not as bad as it has been since its glory days but it still seems like a shadow of its former self, an anonymous designed-by-committee men’s magazine rather than a beacon of intelligence and attitude.

Not entirely her fault, of course. But old media seems like a flotilla of Titanics these days and Black has done a middling, middle-management job of keeping her own sinking ship afloat. To call her a genius, or even an innovator, seems laughable. To call her chancellor of the schools seems, at this point like a long shot.