Ex-New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman Accuses Former Employer of ‘Sanewashing’ Trump
Former New York Times columnist Paul Krugman accused his ex-employer of “sane-washing” the behavior of President Donald Trump.
Krugman, who announced his retirement from the paper last year, appeared on Monday’s installment of The Beat on MSNBC. After a discussion about Trump threatening tariffs on Canada and Mexico, Ari Melber asked his guest to weigh in on how the media covers the president.
“Do you feel that The New York Times and other media, quite frankly, are taking up the right approach and being, sort of, without fear or favor able to cover this administration, which has threatened journalists, which as, as we’ve covered, going after the rule of law in various ways?” Melber asked. “Any thoughts you want to share about that?”
Krugman, who now runs a Substack, said the Times and other news outlets have been “sanewashing” Trump’s actions, whereby the press launders the president’s outlandish behavior and statements by portraying them as more measured and rational than they actually were.
“The conventional news media are invaluable,” Krugman replied. “I depend upon the reporting from my old employer and depend upon reporting from other news organizations. But there’s definitely sanewashing that goes on. Definitely an unwillingness to just flatly report the crazy stuff.”
The Nobel Prize-winning economist went on to say that simply reading the newspapers would give one an incomplete picture of Trump.
“So, this is why, I’m happy to be now free to have a fairly substantial subscription base already and be able to talk about this stuff without trying to sound moderate and sensible because these are not moderate and sensible times.”
In an interview last month, Krugman said editors at the Times were “exerting a very heavy hand on what went out under my name.”
“Are you concerned that that’s happening in print outlets?” Melber followed up. “Are you concerned that’s happening at The New York Times?
“Yes,” Krugman responded. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to trash my employer. Do not drop your subscription to the The New York Times. That’s s an essential news source. But mostly, it takes the form of a sort of flattening… you don’t get the full sense.”
Krugman pointed to the Times‘ coverage of Elon Musk’s assault on the United States Agency for International Development.
“If you read about Elon Musk’s attack on USAID – the critical agency – did you read that he called it ‘evil,’ that he said all of the staff are left-wing Marxists who hate America?” he went on. “You probably may not have seen that, or it was downplayed. It was in paragraph 19. And that’s what I don’t think the media are adequately conveying about what’s happening now.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
