The New York Times found itself in the middle of the news cycle this week when they decided to publish an opinion piece by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) calling on President Trump to utilize the United States Military to end the rioting and looting taking place across the country.
NYT reporters took to Twitter to say running the OpEd "put black lives in danger." The Times' opinion editor, James Bennet, was forced to defend the decision. Then the newspaper decided they never should have ran Cotton's opinion piece.
Now the "paper of record" is having a shakeup. Bennet resigned his position as Editorial Page Editor. Deputy opinion editor Jim Dao is transferring from the opinion desk to the newsroom and Katie Kingsbury will serve as Editorial Page Editor through the November 3rd election.
Publisher A.G. Sulzberger plans to work with Kingsbury "to bring more editing support to the Opinion department, as well as take other steps to ensure all our work meets our high standards."
"There are also fundamental questions to address about the changing role of opinion journalism in a digital world, and we will begin work to reinvent the Op-Ed format so that readers understand why we choose to elevate each argument and where it fits in the national debate," Sulzberger wrote in an internal email to staff.
Inbox: James Bennet is out as opinion editor of The New York Times after the publication of the "Send in the Troops" op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton that led to outrage among staff and readers.
— Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs (@NickAtNews) June 7, 2020
Here's the email employees just got from the NYT publisher. pic.twitter.com/NnHIohC1Mm
When Cotton saw the announcement, he slammed the newspaper for lying.
This is false and offensive.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) June 7, 2020
I called for using military force as a backup—only if police are overwhelmed—to stop riots, not to be used against protesters.
If @nytimes has any decency left, they should retract this smear. https://t.co/9qJLgWSwlP
Here's what I said.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) June 7, 2020
The @nytimes is lying again. pic.twitter.com/sf0F1RPUfM