Called on the carpet by its own staff, The New York Times on Friday added an editor's note castigating itself for posting an opinion piece by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., that called for active military troops to "restore order" to cities roiled by George Floyd protests.
"Given the life-and-death importance of the topic, the senator's influential position and the gravity of the steps he advocates, the essay should have undergone the highest level of scrutiny," the editorial board wrote.
"Instead, the editing process was rushed and flawed, and senior editors were not sufficiently involved. While Sen. Cotton and his staff cooperated fully in our editing process, the Op-Ed should have been subject to further substantial revisions — as is frequently the case with such essays — or rejected."
Cotton's "Send in the Troops" commentary Wednesday triggered a flood of tweets from staffers at the Times, including one that asserted "running this puts Black @NYTimes staff in danger. I stand by my colleagues in solidarity."
The board picked apart Cotton's piece, using as an example his claim about the role of "cadres of left-wing radicals like Antifa" in protests.
"In fact, those allegations have not been substantiated and have been widely questioned," the editorial board wrote. "Editors should have sought further corroboration of those assertions, or removed them from the piece."
It was not just facts the editorial board objected to.
"The tone of the essay in places is needlessly harsh and falls short of the thoughtful approach that advances useful debate," the board wrote.
The news outlet Thursday punished itself for the column, saying because it deemed the editorial process "rushed . . . we're planning to examine both short-term and long-term changes, to include expanding our fact-checking operation and reducing the number of Op-Eds we publish."
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