The New York Times always leaned left, but would often present alternative viewpoints. In recent years the bias was strong and strident. But sometimes in the last several months I thought that I saw the dawning of a few more glimmers of fairness. A few of those glimmers came a couple of years ago when I first noticed the commentaries of Pamela Paul. She occasionally told stories that were true but were not politically correct. She occasionally defended those who had been unfairly cancelled. Sometimes I would finish one of her columns and feel hope in my heart for our society and even for The New York Times. (I ran blog entries highlighting Pamela Paul commentaries here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
But today I was catching up on some unread papers and read her “Farewell Column.” I immediately Googled her name and learned that she had been fired, canceled, by The New York Times. What a sad, sorry day. I hope she prospers somewhere else.
I will continue to subscribe to The New York Times for now. I still find enough value in niches as yet unruined by the Times‘s cancel culture: the Tuesday “Science Times” section, sometimes obituaries, sometimes business stories, and sometimes international stories (especially on China).
Here is little of what she wrote in “Farewell”:
(p. A23) I knew my positions, fundamentally liberal but often at odds with what had become illiberal progressive dogma, would ruffle feathers. But as I explained, “I want to write about that vast center/liberal space and to address what people really think and believe but are often too afraid to say.”
. . .
I did not want my positions to be unduly guided by what others might think, be they friends or strangers, office colleagues or online trolls, activist organizations or institutional powers. And the lure of affirmation can be just as potent as the fear of attack.
. . .
. . . the reporting I’m most proud of is when I used my voice to stand up for people whose lives or work had come under attack, whether they were public figures or were dragged into the public eye because they’d dared to speak or act in ways that unjustly elicited professional or social condemnation: A popular novelist ostracized for alleged “cultural appropriation.” A physician assistant who was excoriated on social media for standing up to bullies. A Palestinian writer whose appearance at a prominent book fair was canceled. An early beneficiary of affirmative action who dared to explore its unintended consequences. Vulnerable gay teenagers who described being misled by a politicized medical establishment into dubious gender transition treatments. A public university president who was driven away by a campus besieged with political division. Social work students and faculty members undermined by a school that had betrayed its own principles. A public health expert who risked opprobrium from his peers by calling out his profession on groupthink.
All found themselves at odds with the people or communities that had once supported them, a disorienting place to be, especially in these polarized times.
Pamela Paul’s last commentary for The New York Times is:
Pamela Paul. “My Farewell Column.” The New York Times (Fri., April 4, 2025): A23.
(Note: ellipses added.)
(Note: the online version of the commentary has the date April 3, and has the same title as the print version.)