1. Let's talk about what a cesspool of corruption the New York Times op-ed page has become under James Bennet.
2. Yesterday, the Times published an op-ed headlined, “Trump is crude. But he’s right about Saudi Arabia.” This not only defended Trump's Saudi policy but also, crucially, argued Mohammed bin Salman was only legitimate ruler of Saudi Arabia.
3. Op-ed was written by two think tankers, Michael Doran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. What might those be, you ask?
4. As it happened, earlier this year, New York Times news section (the good Times) did a great investigative report on how Saudi Arabia & UAE were lobbying in USA using American think tanks.
5. The earlier Times report focused on 2 men, George Nader, an advisor to the ruler of the UAE and Elliott Broidy, a big GOP donor. Made clear that Nader was using Broidy as a front man nytimes.com/2018/03/21/us/…
6. Hudson Institute & Foundation for Defense of Democracies (sic!) are not supposed to take foreign funding or funding from autocracis. But via Broidy, Nader got Saudi & UAE sway over them. 
7. Tangentially, or maybe not tangentially, Nader & Broidy are both major league sleazeballs. Nader has served time for sexually abusing children. Broidy accused of coercing former mistress to have abortion & paying hush money (via Michael Cohen).
8. Nader is also a co-operating witness in Mueller investigation.
9. If you read only the oped, this is all you'd know about authors. Nothing about think tanks tied to Arab autocrats, or Nader, or Broidy, or child sex abuse, or the Mueller investigation. Just two normal guys from a normal think tank. Foreign policy experts.
10. I lay out the whole matter here: newrepublic.com/minutes/152387…
11. One takeaway from this is that the Times Op Ed page is in a different universe than Times news section. By publishing that op ed in the form they did, they were denying or erasing the hard work Times reporters did.
