Some smart number-crunching from Gawker's Sarah Hedgecock:

The New York Times' David Brooks is under the impression that the babblings of his Yale students reflect major generational trends. The Washington Post's Richard Cohen thinks for some reason that it's okay to assume interracial relationships probably make people "repress a gag reflex." At the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan was apparently the last person on earth to find out about the internet. ...

Why? Why are editors at these widely read, extremely reputable papers publishing pieces expressing bewilderment at the 21st century? And more importantly, why are respected opinion columnists writing these bizarre things? ... We took a look into it, and it turns out it's because they're old. ... Of the 143 columnists we looked at, a scant 38 were women. Just as bad was the age distribution: Average and median ages on the whole hover around 60. 

Hedgecock's main knock against the older set is that they're out of touch, which is often the case, as her examples show (she also has some visuals to help get the point across.. I'd just add that the older columnists get, the more redundant they become. Maureen Dowd, Tom Friedman, David Brooks, Paul Krugman -- their columns tend to be variations on familiar themes. Compare that to a younger talent like Ross Douthat (age 34), who has emerged as the most dynamic voice on the Times' editorial page, and an increasingly influential player in moderate conservative thought.

Fortunately for readers, there's the Internet, which has significantly broadened the playing field.