Why columnists are leaving

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. Thomas Jefferson

Recently there’s been a rash of newspaper columnists leaving major corporations, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. The reason for the mass exodus? As Paul Krugman states (formerly of the NYT), “I left to stay true to my byline.” It’s what happens when opinion writers are no longer able to speak their mind but are instead controlled and overruled by a set of editors and the mindset of their owners.

Also in 2024, the editing of my regular columns went from light touch to extremely intrusive. I went from one level of editing to three, with an immediate editor and his superior both weighing in on the column and sometimes doing substantial rewrites before it went to copy. These rewrites almost invariably involved toning down, introducing unnecessary qualifiers, and, as I saw it, false equivalence. I would rewrite the rewrites to restore the essence of my original argument. But as I told Charles Kaiser, I began to feel that I was putting more effort—especially emotional energy—into fixing editorial damage than I was into writing the original articles. And the end result of the back and forth often felt flat and colorless. Paul Krugman

As others leave the once hallowed grounds, writers such as Jennifer Rubin have found a new home at The Contrarian: Not Owned by Anybody, a Substack subscription gaining popularity with the public. However, The Contrarian is only one of multiple independent news sources. For a comprehensive list including online news, public radio, print newspaper, community radio, and print magazines, check out the following source, List of Independent Media, many of which are non-profit organizations.

“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.” Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, January 8, 1789

I for one am delighted to see a shake-up in the system. In order for democracy to survive, it’s imperative that we challenge and question, because when we become non-responsive, we willingly give away our freedoms.

“When the public’s right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.” – Christopher Dodd

“A free press can be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom a press will never be anything but bad.”   Albert Camus