The New York Times announced Sunday that James Bennet, Editorial Page Editor since May, 2016, is resigning effective immediately.
The Times also announced that the deputy editorial page editor Jim Dao is stepping off the masthead and being reassigned to the newsroom.
Katie Kingsbury, who joined The Times in 2017, has been named as acting Editorial Page Editor through the November election.
Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said, “James is a journalist of enormous talent and integrity who believes deeply in the mission of The Times. He oversaw a significant transformation of the Opinion department, which broadened the range of voices we publish and pushed us into new formats like video, graphics and audio. I’m grateful for his many contributions.
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| James Bennet |
James Bennet said, “The journalism of Times Opinion has never mattered more than in this time of crisis at home and around the world, and I’ve been honored to be part of it. I’m so proud of the work my colleagues and I have done to focus attention on injustice and threats to freedom and to enrich debate about the right path forward by bringing new voices and ideas to Times readers.”
The Hill reports the newspaper’s announcement did not mention the controversy over the Cotton op-ed, titled "Send in the Troops." But Bennet's resignation comes after the publication of the op-ed, which called for the president to invoke the Insurrection Act in order to deploy the military to quell nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd, sparked an internal revolt at the newspaper.
On Thursday, the New York Times said in a statement the senator’s op-ed “did not meet our standards” and said the Times is planning to “examine both short term and long term changes” including expanding its fact checking operation and reducing the number of op-eds it publishes.
Numerous Times staffers criticized the newspaper’s decision to publish the op-ed, arguing such sentiments endangered the lives of black journalists.
“Supporting my colleagues, and particularly the black ones. if electeds want to make provocative arguments let them withstand the questions and context of a news story, not unvarnished and unchecked,” Times reporter Astead Herndon, one of many Times staffers who criticized the decision, tweeted.
In response to the decision, Times staff editor and opinion writer Bari Weiss said the “civil war” at the newspaper “between the (mostly young) wokes the (mostly 40+) liberals is the same one raging inside other publications and companies across the country."
My column: Leftists are in firm control at The New York Times: Goodwin https://t.co/Px71Hz6jYj via @nypost— Michael Goodwin (@mgoodwin_nypost) June 7, 2020
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