NYT Editor Admits Paper Pitched Op-Ed To Tom Cotton!

Update (1720ET): During an internal Town Hall meeting at the New York Times, opinion editor James Bennett issued a mea culpa,telling staffers that he let his section be "stampeded by the news cycle," according to the Daily Beast.

Most interestingly, however, Bennett admitted that Cotton had been invited to write the opinion piece!

When asked about the senator’s claim that the Times approached him to write the op-ed, Bennet admitted that the opinion page had seen Cotton’s tweets on the subject and “we did ask if he could stand up that argument. I’m not sure we suggested that topic to him but we did invite the piece.” -Daily Beast

As National Review noted on Friday:

There was “haggling,” the Cotton staffer says, “over what the angle and point of the piece ought to be.”

This negotiation took place with an editor who the Cotton team assumed was working with his superiors on his end.

After several rounds of back of forth Monday and into Tuesday, Senator Cotton accepted the Times-approved topic. Then, the drafting process began, with the senator finishing the final version late on Tuesday. Around 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Cotton’s office delivered the piece to the Times.

There were at least three drafts back and forth. The Times would send along edits for approval, and the Cotton team would sign off, and then there would be another round. -National Review

Perhaps the Times needs to send out a company-wide internal poll for woke mob approvals before sparking another mass-triggering.

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