Recently Obamabeans reporters had a chance to interview Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times. In the interview Mr. Sulzberger was asked about David Brooks’ role at the Times, and whether Brooks was there as a “token” conservative writer. David Brooks is a columnist with the Times and is often cited as the lone conservative voice there, with the remaining columnists, including Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, Gail Collins, Thomas Friedman, etc. firmly in the progressive category. Mr. Sulzberger’s reply was as follows:
“The short answer is ‘no’, David is not our ‘token’ conservative. Our policy at the Times is to hire the best writers and the best thinkers out there. David is certainly one of the best columnists writing today. And besides, David is not really that conservative. For gosh sakes, he was at one time even excited about Barack Obama becoming President, even if it was only for a very brief time. I will admit to a kind of tokenism of a different sort. Before we hired David, the editors and myself had decided that to add some diversity to our panel of columnists, we should try to find at least one writer who was not pompous, condescending, and altogether full of himself, just to counterbalance to some degree all the other writers at the Times. Luckily we found David who fit the bill on all accounts.”
©Obamabeans 04/05/2013