NEW YORK, NY June 21 (DPI) – The young new publisher of The New York Times this week wrote – in The Wall Street Journal of all places – a strident defense of press freedom in this Age of Trump. All simple and fair enough, except that WSJ readers posted 2,600 comments largely hostile to the NYT and its agenda, many only too happy to suggest the NYT should be prosecuted for the opinions it publishes.

At the core of the discussion of course is the ongoing rhetorical food-fight between Trump and the left-leaning US media – which of course is most of the major US media, the NYT among them. And the heated exchange has included over the last several months one incendiary word: Treason. A word which, in another era, connoted as an act punishable by death.

Thirty-eight-year-old A.G. Sulzberger, groomed for the NYT publishers’ job by his newspaper-controlling family, was installed as publisher in January of last year. The op-ed appeared to be part of a modest effort to establish Sulzberger as a stalwart defender of press freedom, which you’d expect any newspaper publisher to be. That a rival newspaper – and one often ideologically opposed to The Times – would publish Sulzberger’s op-ed titled “Accusing the NYT of ‘Treason’, Trump Crosses a Line’ underscored the sense that press freedom is a universal American value.

“The Founders considered it the gravest of crimes,” Sulzberger wrote. “Tossing the charge around is irresponsible and wrong.”

Unfortunately for The Times, some of its op-ed contributors in the last year have used language not dissimilar to Trump’s, and WSJ were quick to point that out. The top recommended comment on WSJ.com:

Two Papers in One
“Accusing the New York Times of ‘Treason,’ Trump Crosses a Line” — A. Sulzberger, publisher of New York Times

“Trump, Treasonous Traitor” — New York Times

That it was an independent op-ed writer for the NYT – and not the NYT itself – who was the author of the “Treasonous Traitor” column was a distinction without a difference to WSJ readers. Other popular comments aired the same view:

Did WSJ Publish Mr. Sulzbergers’ weak opinion piece to embarrass him?