Departure of New York Times columnist puts a spotlight on the void of pro-Trump voices in its opinion pages
The paper of record doesn't have a representative for roughly half of the U.S. voting population — at least on its opinion pages. The New York Times has 12 featured columnists following the departure of its longtime conservative writer Ross Douthat, who was poached by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss last week as a new "60 Minutes" correspondent. According to a drop-down menu on the Times' homepage, the remaining columnists are Jamelle Bouie, Maureen Dowd, David French, Thomas Friedman, M. Gessen, Michelle Goldberg, Ezra Klein, Nicholas Kristof, Carlos Lozada, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Lydia Polgreen and Bret Stephens. Of the Times' 12 columnists, only two of them, David French and Bret Stephens, are self-described conservatives but have spent the past decade opposing President Donald Trump, so much so that they both declared their support for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Douthat's new boss, notably, was formerly a Times colleague of his. Weiss resigned from the Gray Lady as an opinion editor in 2020 after being ostracized and bullied by far-left staffers, famously declaring at the time that "Twitter has become [the Times'] ultimate editor." Her resignation followed the debacle at the paper after publishing the now-infamous Tom Cotton op-ed in 2020 about using federal troops to quell civil unrest. That prompted a volcanic social media revolt from liberal Times employees and the ousting of multiple opinion staffers in one of the most embarrassing episodes in the paper's recent history. The politics of the remaining Times columnists can be seen in their recent commentary and the controversies they've been swept up in. In April, Thomas Friedman said he found himself "torn" about rooting for the Iranian regime's downfall if it meant it would be a victory for "terrible," "awful human beings" President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In May, Nicholas Kristof sparked an international outcry when he reported without skepticism that Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel were being raped by dogs — Kristof also made an ill-fated bid for Oregon governor in 2021, as a Democrat. Last month, Goldberg was forced to walk back her fawning coverage of disgraced Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner after the Democrat was accused of sexual assault. The overwhelming liberal slant of the Times' opinion pages can also apply to the paper's editorial board, which hasn't endorsed a Republican for president since Dwight D. Eisenhower nearly 70 years ago. In 17 straight elections, it's endorsed the Democratic candidate, including defeated hopefuls like George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris. Just two days after Trump won the 2024 election, The New York Times published a somber video featuring 10 of its columnists, including Douthat, French and Stephens, all offering their predictions of "the worst version of a Trump administration." In the video, Polgreen insisted Trump will "fulfill his promise to be a dictator on Day One." Meanwhile, the opinion pages at The Washington Post have had quite the makeover. Its owner, Jeff Bezos, quashed its planned endorsement of Harris and implemented an edict for its opinion section to promote "personal liberties and free markets," prompting major backlash from liberal critics. "Our readers are overwhelmingly liberal, right?" Washington Post opinion editor Adam O'Neal told Fox News Digital last year, who announced last week he is leaving The Post at the end of August. "And they're all overwhelmingly located in blue states. And just a few blue states. And they're over-represented on the coasts. And so, one way to look at it would be to say, 'Well, if you're non-partisan, and you have a highly partisan readership, they may be offended by that.' And maybe that's true. But looking forward as I rebuild, I really just see it as an opportunity to expand our reach." But with Douthat's departure from the Times, the conservative representation in its opinion pages becomes even smaller — and what little remains is fervently anti-Trump. The New York Times did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.