New York Times Opinion Editor Out After Publishing Controversial Tom Cotton Piece

TOPLINE

The New York Times’ opinion editor has resigned amid staff backlash over the decision to publish an op-ed piece from U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) entitled “Send In The Troops,” with the senator calling for military intervention to deal with rioting.

KEY FACTS

KEY BACKGROUND

Cotton’s piece—which contains claims like “Some elites have excused this orgy of violence in the spirit of radical chic”—defended the idea of the U.S. military being called in to American cities to restore order. The piece was published just days after President Donald Trump gave an address from the White House Rose Garden, where he threatened to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to send the military into cities he felt weren’t properly being policed by local authorities.

Publishing the piece was met with significant blowback among the staff. Dozens of current and former staffers denounced the piece, with many tweeting that the op-ed “puts black lives in danger.” The Times’ PR team would release a statement on Thursday saying that the op-ed “did not meet our standards.”

CHIEF CRITICS

In a tweet Sunday, Trump criticized the decision for Bennet to leave, saying “That’s right, he quit over the excellent Op-Ed penned by our great Senator @TomCottonAR.”

As for Cotton, he’s said the Times should have stood by publishing the piece, telling Fox News the paper “totally surrendered to a woke child mob from their own newsroom that apparently gets triggered if they’re presented with any opinion contrary to their own.”

CRITICAL QUOTE

“The editing process was rushed and flawed, and senior editors were not sufficiently involved,” a lengthy editors’ note now attached to the op/ed says. “While Senator Cotton and his staff cooperated fully in our editing process, the Op-Ed should have been subject to further substantial revisions — as is frequently the case with such essays — or rejected.”

FURTHER READING

Tom Cotton: Send In the Troops (The New York Times)

James Bennet Resigns as New York Times Opinion Editor (The New York Times)

Why We Published the Tom Cotton Op-Ed (The New York Times)