1. About a decade ago, I was involved in a mini-flap when as a blogger at the Phila. Daily News I sharply criticized my own employers for giving an op-ed column in our then-sister pub, the Inquirer, to ex-Bush administration torture architect John Yoo. That's because...
2. ...by handing such a powerful megaphone to Yoo, the paper was condoning torture, that it was in the bounds of acceptable debate (it isn't). It's not a question of free speech -- Yoo was still free to go to a park and start ranting about waterboarding or whatever. But there's..
3. ..a reason news orgs don't publish op-eds from the KKK or the Man-Boy Love Association, etc. A good news org, as part of the civic discourse in a community, has a responsibility not to harm that community by amplifying dangerous views. The Tom Cotton op-ed is dangerous to...
4 ...its community, and advocates authoritarianism, which isn't legitimate civic discourse or debate. The NYT has one of the world's loudest megaphones. It should not have been handed to the neo-fascism of Tom Cotton. That was a terrible mistake. -30-
