By Jake Johnson/Common Dreams
According to the newly leaked transcript of a New York Times staff meeting last year, editorial page editor James Bennet wants his employees and the public to believe that the paper of record is dedicated to open debate, not committed to any particular ideology, and opposed to “simply assert[ing] that we know what the right answers are.”
Oh, except when it comes to one small matter: lower corporate taxes.
After taking a few moments to insist that the Times “is very concerned with fairness” and outlining what the Huffington Post’s Ashley Feinberg described as “an ideology of no ideology,” Bennet went on to express support for a lower corporate tax rate – one of the central components of the tax bill President Donald Trump signed into law last year.
“In thinking about, for example, the tax bill in this and that, you know, we actually like the idea of reducing corporate rates,” Bennet said. “We’re not for taxation for purposes of taxation, but we are very concerned about fairness and equitable distribution. And it’s sort of wrestling with the, with the tensions there is, I think, how we come out where we do.”
Bennet’s remarks are just the latest example of why he is facing intense criticism – both internally and externally – for such head-scratchers as bringing on right-wing climate denier Bret Stephens as a full-time columnist and coming within a hair’s breadth of hiring a tech writer who is pals with neo-Nazis.
Bennet insisted during a December meeting that the Stephens hire demonstrates the paper’s commitment to ideological diversity, but one Times employee called that expressed commitment into doubt by highlighting the fact that the paper doesn’t have a “strong advocate” for Sen. Bernie Sanders or his policy agenda on staff.
“I think we are pro-capitalism,” Bennet said, according to the Huffington Post, which was given a video of the meeting. “The New York Times is in favor of capitalism because it has been the greatest engine of, it’s been the greatest anti-poverty program and engine of progress that we’ve seen.”
Bennet also called on Times staffers to send him possible columnist “nominations.”
More:
This is the second time in just weeks that NYT employees have leaked info to HuffPo because of anger over opinion sectionhttps://t.co/GCt5Mlw2z3
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 27, 2018
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So I read through this rather carefully and the buried lede here seems to be that….the NYT has little to no fact-checking for its op-ed page. Wow. https://t.co/6aI3aZhNv8
— ‘((Adam (Elkus))) (@Aelkus) February 28, 2018
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what reading this taught me is that the website i work for, which covers the designer accessory industry and employs four people full time, has a more cogent and nuanced approach to our editorial viewpoint than the opinion section of the New York Times https://t.co/Xn0IKVkkPw
— Amanda Mull (@amandamull) February 27, 2018
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In leaked transcript with New York Times staff, editorial page editor James Bennet defends Op-Ed by Israeli settler leader who called for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians even though Bennet questions whether it was “hate speech in a sense.”https://t.co/EoK6UWkQwe
— Mondoweiss (@Mondoweiss) February 27, 2018
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Everyone is mad at James Bennet, and we have 6,000 words on his dark works! https://t.co/LAnggO4jtD
— The Baffler (@thebafflermag) February 27, 2018
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Posted on February 28, 2018