NY Times accused of 'stealth editing' report after claiming Cotton pushed 'military force against protesters'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The New York Times continues to be in hot water Monday over the fallout from the controversial Tom Cotton op-ed, this time over a claim of "stealth editing" a report accusing the GOP lawmaker of calling for "military force against protesters" angry over the death of George Floyd.
The Times turmoil began when the paper ran an op-ed written by the Arkansas Republican senator with the headline "Send in the troops" that called for military intervention if the riots from the George Floyd protests needed to be quelled, something that sparked fierce backlash among staffers.
However, a Times report published Sunday about the resignation of its editorial page editor, James Bennet, started by claiming Cotton "called for military force against protesters in American cities" -- a claim also posted on the Times' Twitter account.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Cotton fired back at the assertion.
"This is false and offensive. I called for using military force as a backup—only if police are overwhelmed—to stop riots, not to be used against protesters. If @nyTimes has any decency left, they should retract this smear," Cotton tweeted.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He then pointed to his own op-ed, which read in part, "Some elites have excused this orgy of violence in the spirit of radical chic, calling it an understandable response to the wrongful death of George Floyd. Those excuses are built on a revolting more equivalence of rioters and looters to peaceful, law-abiding protesters. A majority who seek to protest peacefully shouldn't be confused with bands of miscreants."
However, Washington Examiner journalist Joe Gabriel Simonson pointed out a change in the Times report on Monday without any sort of correction made.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"James Bennet resigned on Sunday from his job as the editorial page editor of The New York Times, days after the newspaper's opinion section, which he oversaw, published a much-criticized Op-Ed by a United States senator calling for a military response to civic unrest in America," the report read Monday, despite the tweet asserting otherwise had not been taken down.
"Good start to the new New York Times! Stealth edits!" Simonson exclaimed.
The Times did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
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The report published by the Times on Sunday addressed the resignation of Bennet, who publicly defended the publishing of the Cotton op-ed but later apologized to colleagues during an internal meeting. Bennet was said to have admitted that he himself did not read the op-ed before it was published.
Jim Dao, the Times deputy editorial page editor, has also been reassigned.