Things We Saw Today: James Bennet Resigns as Editor of The New York Times

The New York Times came under fire last week after publishing Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton’s “Send in the Troops” op-ed, a frighteningly fascist take on the George Floyd protests. Many readers and journalists at the Times were infuriated by the incendiary and downright dangerous screed, which lacked facts and credibility.

In response, over 300 employees staged a virtual walkout, and every contributor of color tweeted the message that Cotton’s article put their lives in danger.

Yesterday two dozen of us who make @nytimes publishing tools called out sick in solidarity with our Black colleagues & in protest of the Cotton op-ed. I was harassed on Twitter all day for it.

Guess what? Today there’s a virtual walkout of 300+ of us who work outside editorial. pic.twitter.com/Tv6kgaSaoK

— Nozlee Samadzadeh (@nzle) June 5, 2020

James Bennet, the editor in charge of the opinion section, had reportedly told employees that he hadn’t even read the piece before it went to print. The Times’s publisher, A. G. Sulzberger, said that “Given that this is not the first lapse, the Opinion department will also be taking several initial steps to reduce the likelihood of something like this happening again.”

The New York Times has now announced Bennet’s resignation and replacement with Katie Kingsbury:

The @nytimes announced today that James Bennet, Editorial Page Editor since May 2016, is resigning effective immediately. Katie Kingsbury, who joined The Times in 2017, has been named as acting Editorial Page Editor through the November election. https://t.co/84QX4OrrcG

— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) June 7, 2020

Katie Kingsbury was previously the managing editor at the Boston Globe. In 2015 she won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for a series of articles that exposed the unfair working conditions facing restaurant workers.

This is an important and long overdue move for the editorial page, which has all too often amplified conservative voices at the expense of writers of color. Also, how can you call yourself an editor and NOT READ the stories you publish? Sorry James Bennet, but when you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.

(image: KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images)

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Last night in Milwaukee, these items were thrown at our police officers. They tried to send them to the Shadow Realm. pic.twitter.com/lTCsD3rAtV

— Craigory Smith, KXCN⚪️ (@nihilist_bucks) June 6, 2020

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• Pokémon Detective Pikachu star Justice Smith has come out as a queer man and announced his relationship with Nicholas Ashe (Queen Sugar). Happy Pride Month!

View this post on Instagram

@nckash and I protested today in New Orleans. We chanted ‘Black Trans Lives Matter’ ‘Black Queer Lives Matter’ ‘All Black Lives Matter’. As a black queer man myself, I was disappointed to see certain people eager to say Black Lives Matter, but hold their tongue when Trans/Queer was added. I want to reiterate this sentiment: if your revolution does not include Black Queer voices, it is anti-black. If your revolution is okay with letting black trans people like #TonyMcDade slip through the cracks in order to solely liberate black cishet men, it is anti-black. You are trying to push yourself through the door of a system designed against you, and then shut the door behind you. It is in our conditioning to get as close to whiteness, straightness, maleness as we can because that’s where the power is. And if we appeal to it, maybe it’ll give us a slice. But the revolution is not about appeal. It is about demanding what should have been given to us from the beginning. What should have been given to black, queer, and trans individuals from the beginning. Which is the right to exist. To live and prosper in public. Without fear of persecution or threat of violence. There is so much tragedy on the timeline these last couple of days so I added some photos of me and Nic to show some #blackboyjoy #blacklove #blackqueerlove ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 You’ve been my rock and guiding light through all of this and I love you so much. I know that on the other side of this Is change, though the fight is far from over. #justicefortonymcdade #justiceforninapop #justiceforgeorgefloyd #justiceforahmaud #justiceforbreonna #sayhername #defundthepolice #endwhitesupremacy

A post shared by Justice Smith (@standup4justice) on Jun 5, 2020 at 8:37pm PDT

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