Former NYT editorial page editor writes scathing essay about newspaper's culture, his exit

James Bennet, the former editorial page editor of The New York Times, has written a scathing column about his departure from the paper and criticizing the Times for what he sees as a shift away from its previous journalistic principles.

Bennet gave his version of the story of his departure in a 16,000-word article in The Economist, where he is currently a columnist. In the article, titled “When the New York Times lost its way,” he describes what he sees as the Times’ shift from traditional journalistic principles, according to The Daily Wire, and “courage,” to an “illiberal” philosophy of the news.

“The Times’s problem has metastasised from liberal bias to illiberal bias, from an inclination to favour one side of the national debate to an impulse to shut debate down altogether,” Bennet wrote in the U.K.-based publication.

The article is critical of Times’ publisher A.G. Sulzberger and former executive editor Dean Baquet, both of whom Bennet accuses of sacrificing him when they came under some pressure instead of standing for principles they had previously claimed to believe.

Bennet says he was forced out at the paper in June 2020 over an op-ed that he greenlit and published in the Times, written by the Republican Senator Tom Cotton, an ally of then-President Donald Trump. Cotton advocated for the activation of the military to fortify local and state law enforcement to protect Americans against rioters and looters “who were terrorizing and destroying communities amid mass civil unrest over the death of George Floyd,” according to The Daily Wire.

Bennet expressed regret for his words at the time, referring to a Zoom meeting after the paper had come under criticism for publishing the Cotton op-ed.

“As my first turn to speak came up, I was still struggling with what I should apologise for,” Bennet wrote in The Economist. “I was not going to apologise for denying my colleagues’ humanity or endangering their lives. I had not done those things. I was not going to apologise for publishing the op-ed. Finally, I came up with something that felt true. I told the meeting that I was sorry for the pain that my leadership of Opinion had caused. What a pathetic thing to say. I did not think to add, because I’d lost track of this truth myself by then, that opinion journalism that never causes pain is not journalism. It can’t hope to move society forward.”

The Times has pushed back on Bennet’s version of events in a statement from Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha.

“The New York Times believes unequivocally in the principle of independence, as has been demonstrated consistently by our journalism before and since that episode," the statement reads. "There are countless examples of the Times standing strong against pressure and protest, whether from governments, companies, politicians, activist groups or even internally.

"In the case of the Tom Cotton op-ed, the handling of such a sensitive piece, specifically the decision to rush it into publication without key leaders having read it because it was ‘newsy,’ made it unusually vulnerable to attack," the statement reads. "Good principles, as the Cotton op-ed demonstrated, cannot be an excuse for bad execution.”