WaPo Media Critic Explains Why Paper Didn’t Defend Fired NYT Editor After Tom Cotton Op-Ed Furor: ‘We Were Afraid’

Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple wrote Thursday he and others at the newspaper lacked the “courage” to defend New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet when he resigned amid controversy in 2020.

Bennett green-lit an op-ed from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) during the summer of civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd while in police custody. Cotton called for the use of the military against rioters, and internal backlash consumed the paper.

Dozens of staffers spoke out against Bennet’s decision to publish the op-ed. The backlash was also swift online.

Times‘ publisher A.G. Sulzberger said in a memo to staffers, “While this has been a painful week across the company, it has sparked urgent and important conversations.”

Bennet recently opened up about his high-profile exit during an interview with Semafor’s Ben Smith.

Regarding Sulzberger, Bennet said he “blew the opportunity to make clear that the New York Times doesn’t exist just to tell progressives how progressives should view reality. That was a huge mistake and a missed opportunity for him to show real strength.”

He also said he regretted a lengthy editor’s note in Cotton’s piece, which was headlined “Send In the Troops,” as it was an attempt to “mollify people.”

Throughout the interview, Bennet slammed his former employer for placating angry reporters and for kowtowing to “the left.”

In a piece published Thursday, Wemple explained why the Post‘s staff did not speak up on Bennet’s behalf:

To date, the lesson from the set-to — that publishing a senator arguing that federal troops could be deployed against rioters is unacceptable — will forever circumscribe what issues opinion sections are allowed to address. It’s also long past time to ask why more people who claim to uphold journalism and free expression — including, um, the Erik Wemple Blog — didn’t speak out then in Bennet’s defense.

It’s because we were afraid to.

Wemple walked through the saga that saw Bennet’s three-decade career grind to a halt. He also said Bennet was “right” to publish every word from Cotton.

“The paper had published an opinion by a U.S. senator (and possible presidential candidate) advocating a lawful act by the president,” he wrote.

Bennet stood alone, Wemple wrote, because his peers lacked the courage to speak up:

Our posture was one of cowardice and midcareer risk management. With that, we pile one more regret onto a controversy littered with them.