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Eight NY Times opinion writers explain today what they got wrong [1]

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Date: 2022-07-21

There’s a rather interesting phenomenon at The NY Times today. (This link should get through the paywall.)

Eight Times Opinion columnists revisit their incorrect predictions and bad advice — and reflect on why they changed their minds.

Here’s the rationale:

In our age of hyperpartisanship and polarization, when social media echo chambers incentivize digging in and doubling down, it’s not easy to admit you got something wrong. But here at Times Opinion, we still hold on to the idea that good-faith intellectual debate is possible, that we should all be able to rethink our positions on issues, from the most serious to the most trivial. It’s not necessarily easy for Times Opinion columnists to engage in public self-reproach, but we hope that in doing so, they can be models of how valuable it can be to admit when you get things wrong.

I have a limited number of gift links to share, so the links to the “Gang of Eight” below may bump up against the paywall. (It would be nice if The NY Times would waive it for these mea culpas.)

Paul Krugman: I was wrong about inflation

Michelle Goldberg: I was wrong about Al Franken

David Brooks: I was wrong about capitalism

Zeynep Tufekci: I was wrong about why protests work

Bret Stephens: I was wrong about Trump voters

Thomas Friedman: I was wrong about Chinese censorship

Farhad Manjoo: I was wrong about Facebook

Gail Collins: I was wrong about Mitt Romney (and his dog)

They say confession is good for the soul — but it can also be inadvertently revealing about that soul.

Now I expect anyone who reads The NY Times has their own views of these 8 opinion writers. I’m going to offer a quick take on each of their contributions; my opinion is free and it may be worth just that. YMMV.

Krugman: I’ve found he makes — IMHO — a regular practice of tracking what he has said in the past and admitting when he got things wrong. This column isn’t really a stretch for him, more like a regular exercise.

Goldberg: She admits regret for pushing for Franken to resign for what seemed like good reasons at the time — but at the expense of a bigger principle.

Brooks: What can I say? His excuse is that he is always operating on internal models of the world that he just does not revise and update often enough. Always behind the curve and stuck inside his own head, in other words.

Tufekci: She makes a good point about the nature of protest and not realizing soon enough how it has changed in recent times. Thoughtful observations for everyone to consider

Stephens: His big mistake was being mean to Trump supporters in a condescending way. Um, that’s pretty much his schtick about everything.

Friedman and Manjoo: Both admit to the same error: letting their personal enthusiasms carry them away.

Collins: When she describes her job as finding ways to make fun of politicians and writing diverting columns, it’s as well for her that she has a gig at the Times and is not doing stand up.

It explains why the comedy duo of Stephens and Collins in “The Conversation” can be excruciating. If they had been in the tumbrels on the way to the guillotine during the French Revolution, they would have spent their last moments competing to see who could make the wittier remarks about the inanity of it all.

A couple of additional observations:

You will never find anyone on the right admitting they ever get anything wrong except in the most self-serving way. Being infallible and always ‘truthful’ is part of their brand; it’s how authoritarian cults work. The NY Times pious hope “that good-faith intellectual debate is possible, that we should all be able to rethink our positions on issues, from the most serious to the most trivial” makes Pollyanna look like a cynic.

It’s not a bad idea for opinion writers to look back at their work and do an honest re-evaluation from time to time. Opinions are just that — opinions — and they should not be taken as written in stone. What would be rather more interesting/useful would be for The NY Times to have people on the reporting side go back and look at the stories they have reported on, to critique what they got wrong and why. Ditto for the pronunciations of the Times Editorial Board.

Not holding my breath.

Feel free to offer your own takes on these columns in comments.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/21/2111700/-Eight-NY-Times-opinion-writers-explain-today-what-they-got-wrong

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