The New York Times is, beyond any doubt, the most important and the greatest paper in the world. Like many people who appreciate it, I live in a constant state of mild gloom that I don’t have time to read more of it every day. I also think it has become even better and stronger under Executive Editor Dean Baquet, the first African-American to lead the paper in its history.
This month, however, the paper has been under attack, both from the left and from much of American journalism for a headline that appeared in some editions after President Trump spoke after the El Paso massacre: Trump Urges Unity vs. Racism.
They were attacked for seemingly bestowing credibility on this President, a man who everybody sane knows has done all he can to stir up racism, hatred and destroy unity. Not to mention lying constantly, whether it makes sense for him to do so or not.
Everyone from the Nation to Columbia Journalism Review to the inevitable Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacked Trump; the world’s most famous freshman member of Congress said the headline aided “white supremacy” and was an example of the “cowardice of mainstream institutions,” and everyone piled on from there. Even Baquet himself later apologized for the headline, which was replaced in later edition with one that said “Assailing Hate But Not Guns.”
Wait a minute.
Get a grip!
Sorry, but I disagree. I thought the first headline was not only accurate, it was oddly appropriate. Now – if you read me, you know that I think Donald Trump is a disgrace and a threat to the nation and the world, the worst president by far that we have ever had.
But he is the President, and he did urge “unity vs. racism” — even though he was lying. Even though there were no grounds to believe he was sincere — and the story that accompanied the headline made that very clear – that is what he said.
The New York Times is the nation’s newspaper of record, and it does have an obligation to report what the nation’s leader said. That is perfectly fair.
Could the headline have been better? Probably. Have you ever written a headline? Probably not. If you haven’t, sometime just try coming up with the right words to sum up a story and entice someone to read it, and do so in a very tiny space. And, oh yes, on a tight deadline.
And it is utterly ridiculous to accuse the Times or Dean Baquet of cowardice. How short our memories are! Only three years ago, he and the paper took tremendous heat for making the decision to say in news stories when Donald Trump was clearly lying.
That broke with tradition, but then the entire Trump phenomenon is the most abhorrent break from tradition in our nation’s history.
The New York Times doesn’t need to become a daily print version of the Nation or MSNBC to prove its devotion to the truth, and to keeping our nation’s best intellectual and cultural elites reliably informed about not only the stories, but why they matter.
We are better in this shabby time to have the Times. Let’s hope it is publishing long after this utterly disgraceful era in our history ends.
