The New York Times’ Profile of Bari Weiss Reads Like a Jealous Ex-Lover’s Rant Because It Is One
Bari Weiss declined to sit for an interview for a profile published in Sunday’s New York Times, telling its author that it was “really hard for me to imagine getting a fair shake in The Times given the history and the relationship.”
Her tone reflected the same concern a newlywed might have about a scorned ex drunkenly proposing a toast at their wedding. The tone of the Times profile validated that concern.
“With her news and opinion site (characteristic headlines: ‘Camping Out at Columbia’s Communist Coachella,’ ‘The Secret Service Failed. What’s That Have to Do With DEI?’), a popular podcast (‘Honestly with Bari Weiss’) and a lucrative turn on the speechmaking circuit, Ms. Weiss has amassed high status in what might be considered the no-tribes tribe of American power,” complained Matt Flegenheimer in what could be disguised as an observation were it nor for what followed.
Flegenheimer went on to describe Weiss — a former Times employee who left the Gray Lady to found The Free Press — as “a reformed print editor who insists she did not get into this industry for money or stature but took care to acquire both anyway.”
“In recent years,” reported Flegenheimer, Weiss has “openly” wondered “how much The Free Press might be worth someday, according to people who have heard her do so.” Similarly intrepid journalists might find that professional athletes “openly” hope for victory, or that directors wonder how their films will perform at the box office.
There are other tells of the author’s intentions.
Weiss’s discussion of anti-Semitism, Flegenheimer argues, has taken place “in a cozy environment.”
Wajahat Ali, a notoriously noxious far-left writer — described only as “a writer and commentator” — is uncritically quoted as calling The Free Press “a salon for the privileged laments of the powerful.”
And, he takes care to note, she’s earned “praise” from the likes of Ted Cruz, Ben Shapiro, and Donald Trump Jr.
The kicker Flegenheimer leaves readers to ponder is Weiss calling herself the great-granddaughter of immigrants and “a coastal elite lesbian journalist who’s accused by the left of being a flag-waving jingoist and on the right of having dual loyalty,” before welcoming Ann Coulter to the stage for a debate hosted by The Free Press.
If there’s a theme to Flegenheimer’s hardly implied critique, it’s this: Weiss decries the Left’s cliques, shibboleths, and overreach but benefits from all of those same blemishes on the Right, all the while casting herself as brave truth-teller.
There is truth to the idea that The Free Press and its founder have a distinct point of view. It is hardly neutral when it comes to any idea or institution that could fairly be described as “woke,” and is even more relentless in attacking the ideological leanings and homogeneity of the elites who shape America’s political, media, and academic landscape than many traditional conservatives.
There are legitimate critiques to make of this tack. How does the threat of wokeness compare with the threat of a second Trump presidency? How do business interests collide with journalistic principles? How does Weiss separate her own experiences from the broader phenomena she deplores?
All are reasonable questions that would in all likelihood elicit fascinating answers from Weiss.
Instead of asking them earnestly, though — with or without Weiss’s cooperation — Flegenheimer proved capable only of the lazy, uncharitable, drive-by attack published by the Times on Sunday.
Of course, if anything more could have been expected of the Times, perhaps Weiss would still be working there. The editorial line of the paper can be found several klicks to the left of the median American voter (it last endorsed a Republican for president in 1956) and Weiss resigned amid bullying from her colleagues, who smeared her as a “Nazi” and “racist.”
Indeed, Flegenheimer’s haughty tone of disapproval for the The Free Press’s adoption of an ideological perspective is risible given where his words were published.
The Times‘ bestseller list has been found to discriminate against conservative authors. Its standards are relaxed when a hit job’s target is conservative. And Weiss is far from the only one to have been run out of town by a witch hunt.
A.G. Sulzberger, the wealthy heir to and publisher of the Times once told James Bennet, ex-Times Opinion editor and brother of Democratic Senator Michael Bennet, to get over the ideological bias against and mistreatment of conservatives at the Times. Later, Sulzberger would fire Bennet for publishing a column from a Republican senator expressing a view supported by a majority of the American people.
If the Times is threatened by the emergence of a rival neither inclined toward its views nor swayed by its reputation, that’s understandable. But a drunken toast would have boasted more dignity — and probably more truth — than this hollow attempt at undermining it.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
