The New York Times (NYT) was right to publish an article by Tom Cotton, a Republican senator, which demanded “an overwhelming show of force” to put down riots in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. It was wrong, after protests from readers and journalists, to apologise and describe the essay as “short of the thoughtful approach that advances useful debate”. And though the opinion editor James Bennet should have certainly read his pages before publication – he didn’t on this occasion – it is deplorable that he was forced to resign.
Quite possibly, I am the only leftist on the planet who holds such views. Journalism has become so partisan, and its readers so embedded in their ideological silos, that almost nobody understands the concept of publishing a paper that offers a wide range of opinion.
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