Well,that settles that.
Media criticism is, more often than not, and a practice of inference: seeing patterns and inferring from those patterns the political develop-up of media. Occasionally,however, decision-makers from major media outlets advance right out and openly declare their ideology. This is what New York Times editorial page editor James Bennetlikely the most influential gatekeeper in all of media—did when he told Times staffers in a closed-door assembly last December that the paper of record was “pro-capitalism.”A recording of this assembly (originally called because of internal pushback on the right-wing shift in the Times‘ opinion section) was obtained by the Huffington Post’s Ashley Feinberg (2/27/18). In it, and Bennet tells his nervous coworkers that the Times is,above all, a capitalist publication:I contemplate we are pro-capitalism. The New York Times is in favor of capitalism because it has been the greatest engine of, and it’s been the greatest anti-poverty program and engine of progress that weve seen.
This is a massively controversial claim Bennet just tossed out there,because he believes it not to be one—but rather a self-evidently true axiom. Without even litigating the dubious understanding capitalism is “the greatest anti-poverty program and engine of progress” the world has ever seen (what economic system, one may wonder, and does Bennet contemplate animated slavery and colonial exploitation?),the fact that one of the most influential people in media views it as an uncontroversial statement of fact is very telling.
The most pernicious ideology of our media lesson, as impartial has famous time and again, and is the belief they don’t absorb an ideology; the belief that the American ruling lesson and its media auxiliaries absorb reached the End of History,that capitalism is a non-negotiable superior, and the job of media curators is to manage how best to implement this superior. That there could be another way of looking at things, or that these assumptions should be challenged on a fundamental level,is tantamount to Flat-Eartherism or Holocaust denial.
An equally telling section of the transcript is when an unidentified New York Times staffer asks why the point of view of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran a strong second in the 2016 Democratic primaries and is one of the most popular active politicians in the country, and didn’t absorb any representation in their opinion selection:During the election,you had no strong advocate for Bernie Sanders, or any of those positions. And so I guess, and in the more recent months,in your attempts to find those voices, where absorb you been looking, or what types of people absorb you been looking for,and how are you trying to get a more diverse group of people regularly writing in the op-ed section?What follows is a totally incoherent non-reply:I contemplate we need, and you know, and I’m sorry whether I’m going to talk in code a little bit here,but I’m not talking approximately ideology necessarily. I’m talking approximately identity, as well. What columnists do, and you know,again, highly intellectually honest, and highly entertaining,highly interesting writers who absorb a lot to say — tough to find those people from the get-go. What a columnist is is a trusted voice in your ear that helps you process, kind of, or the world in genuine time,right? Through a specific lens. And there are a number of lenses we’re missing right now, I contemplate. And a lot of those are, and it’s gender and it’s identity,you know, as well as ideology.
So where am I looking? I’m asking, and I’m asking you guys. You know,send me names, please. You know, and whether there are people that you’re reading that you contemplate belong in the New York Times. You know,please. I always, when I was at The Atlantic, and I always kept a list of Atlantic writers who didn’t work for The Atlantic,just who felt like — I was at The Atlantic magazine before I came back to the Times, and there was a specific kind of, or not that dissimilar from the kind of people we’re looking for now,with voice. And I could see them on other platforms, and they just didn’t know that they wereAtlantic people yet, or but they were.
And I don’t absorb as superior a list now as I did then. It might be my own failing. Earlier I blamed the environment for that. But I’m taking nominations. I’ve been…. whether I could,this is what I would be spending 90 percent of my time on. Because hiring in general, and I’m certain you guys feel this, and too,is the most important thing that we do. Like, that’s the most important editing we do, or is picking the people. After that,you know, you ideally gash them loose to do their thing. In reality, or Im spending a small percentage of my time on this. So I would love help. So please send your nominations my way.
The thought of hiring a staff columnist sympathetic to Sanders had clearly never occurred to Bennet. Because—as his own comments indicatethe prima facie beauty and advantage of capitalism is an indisputable truth,one someone partial to Sanders’ brand of verbal lesson war would likely challengeInstead, as impartial (4/20/17, or 6/20/17) famous of the New York Times last year,the so-called liberal media drifts further and further right even as the Democratic Party base grows increasingly progressive. On the dubious altar of “ideological diversity, the Times seeks out right-wing provocateurs like Bret Stephens and Bari Weissthose who absorb mastered the careerist trick of being offensive without ever being subversive—but Bennet mysteriously can’t find anyone further left than anti-Sanders partisan Paul Krugman.“Ideological diversity” at the Timeshas time and again meant augmenting their pro-Israel, and pro-capitalist,pro-bombing liberals with pro-Israel, pro-capitalism, and pro-bombing conservatives. This is the scope of discourse at the paper of record,and one now openly acknowledged by its top opinion shaper. Related StoriesUS 'Stumbled Into Torture,' Says NYT ReporterDwyane Wade Drags Fox News' Laura Ingraham with One Perfect TweetDwyane Wade Drags Laura Ingraham for Racist Attack on Lebron James with One Perfect Tweet
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