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1. I don& #39;t think anyone not personally involved can really litigate the interpersonal drama between Bari Weiss & her colleagues. Let& #39;s just say there are conflicting stories. What& #39;s more interesting is that with Weiss& #39; departure marks the final end of the James Bennet Project
2. What was the James Bennet Project? It was a response to the fraying of elite consensus in USA, which rendered the cod bipartisanship of David Broder types moot. Bennet tried to come up with a new op-ed formula (first at the Atlantic & then at the Times) based on click bait.
3. The old Times op-ed page was the elite talking to the elite, which meant stuff-shirt seriousness (or a semblance of the same) was crucial. Closest thing to a wildness was Maureen Dowd. Bennet shrewd enough to realize long before others that this elite consensus was dying
4. It& #39;s easy to forget how powerful the bipartisan consensus was from circa 1989-2005, the hubristic certitude in American global hegemony creating the best of all possible worlds of trade & technological innovation. Iraq was the Stalingrad where imperial overreach met its match.
5. Iraq has been followed by other massive failures that have tarnished the old Washington consensus: 2008 meltdown and slow recovery, election of Trump, USA& #39;s unique Covid failure. The resulting polarization has destroyed the utility of Broder-style bipartisan thumb-sucking
6. James Bennet underlying theory of editing was something like this: We can no longer convince each other, but we can still entertain each other. The real premium is to be outrageous -- all the more valuable since clicks & engagement are the name of the game in social media era
7. I was more sympathetic to the Bennet project than a lot of other people, in part because I have no nostalgia for the old elite consensus but also because Bennet& #39;s program meant opening Times op-ed page to voices on left as well the right.
8. The question to ask is if the Benne to project failed because of poor execution (hiring Stephens & Weiss seem like a mistake since they are far from the most interesting voices on the right) or was it doomed to fail? Is a more thoughtful Bennet program possible?
