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1. I don't think anyone not personally involved can really litigate the interpersonal drama between Bari Weiss & her colleagues. Let's just say there are conflicting stories. What's more interesting is that with Weiss' 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'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'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'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?
