James Bennet, the editorial editor of the Times “resigned” today. He had a remarkably bizarre and sloppy career.
For example, in 2019 Bennet published an op-ed from Senator Tom Cotton proposing the US buy Greenland (not a link to the op-ed, you think I’d link to anything Cotton wrote?). To call this a cockamamie scheme is to dignify it and the fool who wrote it. Bennet had no business publishing such crap.
And just recently, Bennet published another piece of nonsense from Cotton. But this time, it was highly dangerous nonsense because Cotton proposed using American troops against peaceful people protesting George Floyd’s death.
And the kicker?
Despite Bennet knowing full well that Cotton was a delusional idiot, despite knowing this was the hottest button subject in the news at the time, Bennet didn’t even bother to read the op-ed, let alone get it properly fact-checked. There was a revolt at the Times over it:
As of Thursday evening, over 800 staff members had signed a letter protesting its publication, addressed to high-ranking editors in the opinion and news divisions, as well as New York Times Company executives.
Let me be clear. The Times has great reporters (some of whom are my friends, full disclosure) and has broken more important stories than almost any paper. But across far-too-many departments at the paper, when the subject is American politics, they have a propensity to screw up badly. They fall over and over again for right wing cons and scams. And this has caused incalculable harm.