1. I don't think anyone not personally involved can really litigate the interpersonal drama between Bari Weiss & her colleagues. Let's just say there are conflicting stories. What's more interesting is that with Weiss' departure marks the final end of the James Bennet Project
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2. What was the James Bennet Project? It was a response to the fraying of elite consensus in USA, which rendered the cod bipartisanship of David Broder types moot. Bennet tried to come up with a new op-ed formula (first at the Atlantic & then at the Times) based on click bait.
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3. The old Times op-ed page was the elite talking to the elite, which meant stuff-shirt seriousness (or a semblance of the same) was crucial. Closest thing to a wildness was Maureen Dowd. Bennet shrewd enough to realize long before others that this elite consensus was dying
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4. It's easy to forget how powerful the bipartisan consensus was from circa 1989-2005, the hubristic certitude in American global hegemony creating the best of all possible worlds of trade & technological innovation. Iraq was the Stalingrad where imperial overreach met its match.
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5. Iraq has been followed by other massive failures that have tarnished the old Washington consensus: 2008 meltdown and slow recovery, election of Trump, USA's unique Covid failure. The resulting polarization has destroyed the utility of Broder-style bipartisan thumb-sucking
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6. James Bennet underlying theory of editing was something like this: We can no longer convince each other, but we can still entertain each other. The real premium is to be outrageous -- all the more valuable since clicks & engagement are the name of the game in social media era
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7. I was more sympathetic to the Bennet project than a lot of other people, in part because I have no nostalgia for the old elite consensus but also because Bennet's program meant opening Times op-ed page to voices on left as well the right.
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8. The question to ask is if the Benne to project failed because of poor execution (hiring Stephens & Weiss seem like a mistake since they are far from the most interesting voices on the right) or was it doomed to fail? Is a more thoughtful Bennet program possible?
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9. Best comment on the Bennet Project was by Michelle Wolf:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsWj7Q5iPus …
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10. My earlier article on the turmoil at James Bennet's section speaks, I think, to some of the controversies of the day:https://www.thenation.com/article/society/racism-new-york-times/ …
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Replying to @HeerJeet
The Times should abolish the whole editorial section or run the thing like Sweden’s Twitter feed. Randomly select five New Yorkers to write a column that day on whatever they want.
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