NEW YORK, NY June 13 (DPI) – The firing this week of James Bennett as op-ed editor of The New York Times marks a major turning point for a once- elite news brand, whose pages have shifted over time from an emphasis on broad political discourse to hard-edged activism.

Bennett was fired recently after he allowed the publication of an op-ed by ultra-conservative Sen. Tom Cotton, who advocated the deployment of the US military unit to quell riots and looting in American cities. Staffers at the Times criticized the decision and claimed that the idea of soldiers on urban streets posed a threat to their personal safety.

Bennett, who was once a candidate to succeed Dean Baquet as executive editor, was dismissed under pressure by A.G. Sulzberger, the heir publisher who currently controls personnel decisions at the news organization.

The op-ed itself was largely dismissed as a poorly reasoned and having questionable facts, and Bennett initially defended its publication as a way to examine the views of a political adversary, however diasagreeable.

As columnists such as Brett Stephen, Roger Cohen and Ross Douthat aired their concerns about stifling discourse, readers were more direct:

This is an overreaction that plays directly into the narrative the right has of left-leaning media: They are too sensitive and intolerant of heterodox views.
I read the Tom Cotton Op-Ed and survived. It was a poor piece of writing with a ridiculous premise. But it was written by a U.S. senator who was making a newsworthy claim that was completely different in tone from the other editorial pieces that day. To claim that it put in danger the lives of protesters because it incited violence is ludicrous.

The Op-Ed section is (or used to be) an interesting place. It presents a far more diverse and well-written set of opinions and viewpoints on news of the day than rival national publications. What The Times has done amounts to self-censorship, a dumbing-down of the contents of the paper and an insult to the critical faculties of The Times’s readers.

As a dutiful Times reader for more than half a century, I was very saddened that James Bennet resigned as opinion editor. In his years as editor, he has been a stalwart voice for social justice and for eloquent dialogue about the deep problems that roil America. He has steered the opinion page in innovative directions, helping it remain a voice of integrity in a chaotic online age.
It is particularly sad that the publication of one Op-Ed overshadows the body of excellent work that he has produced. While the decision to publish the Cotton Op-Ed had drawbacks, the dialogue it produced and the vigorous outcry against his positions it spurred, which would have never occurred had it not been printed, are testaments to the journalism that Mr. Bennet championed.