Censorship at the New York Times

That was a mighty fine broadside against self-censorship in the book industry by New York Times columnist Pamela Paul yesterday. The columnist bemoaned the imposition of politically correct thought on publishing from both the left and right. Book publishers, wrote Paul, have even begun subjecting authors to "sensitivity reads," which sounds truly Orwellian.

As an author of unconventional -- some would deem my books politically unacceptable -- history, I applaud Paul's column. But her words would've carried a lot more weight if she herself had practiced what she preaches. Until she recently became one of the Times's influential opinion writers, Paul was the editor in charge of the Sunday Book Review section. Paul ran the important book section with an authoritarian hand, making sure that when it came to nonfiction books, neoliberal thought ruled the day. Whether she was listening to her editorial masters' voice or simply following her own politically narrow guidelines, Paul NEVER used the writing services of sharp, wise commentators on the left like Robert Scheer, Naomi Klein, Matt Taibbi, Noam Chomsky or former NYT correspondent Chris Hedges. Never would regular contributors to The Nation or Jacobin magazine be published in her section. Eclectic but provocative thinkers like Glenn Greenwald were similarly banned from her pages.

Paul also made sure that my books --- even my most important work, The Devil's Chessboard -- were never reviewed, even though the Times covered my earlier work. Under her command, many other significant, well-written books were also disappeared, including Oliver Stone's 2020 memoir, Chasing the Light.

Instead of writers who would make NYT readers deeply question U.S. policy, Paul subjected us to a steady stream of neoliberals and even outright imperialists like George Packer and Robert D. Kaplan. The contributors to her section and the books they reviewed subscribed to a Council on Foreign Relations view of the country and the world. Under her editorship, the NYT's Sunday Book Review never veered far from the corporate mainstream.

So, yes, Pamela Paul is a hypocrite. When she was a powerful gatekeeper, she practiced political censorship on a weekly basis. Physician, heal thyself.

Pamela Paul