More than a dozen women have accused Donald Trump of sexual assault, and the latest allegation comes from a well-known writer and describes rape. The New York Times did not consider this newsworthy, and the paper’s executive editor now admits that was a mistake. “We were overly cautious,” says Dean Baquet, but don’t worry, he says, it wasn’t intended to protect Trump.
Baquet says the Times got hung up on its rules about sexual assault allegations, because while a reporter interviewed two people who Carroll told about the Trump assault at the time it happened, they weren’t willing to go on the record, a requirement the newspaper developed for its #MeToo reporting. But, Baquet now admits, “We were playing by rules that didn’t quite apply.” Carroll’s account was public and being widely discussed, and involved an accusation against a sitting president by a prominent person, and that “should’ve compelled us to play it bigger.”
But Baquet’s caution is oddly intermittent and specific. When it comes to using the word “lies” to describe Trump’s lies, Baquet is very cautious indeed. When it came to Russia hacking coverage in 2016, Baquet was downright timid—and then he pushed out the public editor who called the coverage timid. But Baquet was not cautious when it came to publishing the widely discredited story headlined “Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. sees no clear link to Russia,” a story that came just days before the 2016 elections.
Isn’t it funny how Dean Baquet’s courage and caution seem to come and go, depending on the story?