Former NY Times Public Editor: Op-Ed Author Trying to Have It Both Ways
*By Conor White*
President Trump took his latest shot at the New York Times Friday, [calling on Attorney General Jeff Sessions](https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/07/politics/donald-trump-jeff-sessions-investigation/index.html) to investigate the publication and find out who wrote the anonymous op-ed that rocked the White House this week.
While the president has threatened to take action, legal experts haven't suggested the Times violated any laws in posting the piece, but the question of whether it *should* have remains.
"I think it was ethically fine," Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post media columnist and former Public Editor for the New York Times, said Friday in an interview on Cheddar. "I think they do run up against some issues if they also decide to have reporters reveal the identity."
In most newsrooms, the opinion and news sections operate as separate entities. But they may collide if the Times' own reporters begin to dig for answers, Sullivan said.
"This op-ed piece was published by the opinion section, the news section presumably is free to pursue the story, but whether that separation is really going to be honored and be understood is another question."
The paper should prepare for a legal battle, and the author should ready him or herself for the consequences, Sullivan said. After all, it seems Trump is arming himself for war.
"We're looking at it very strongly from a legal point," the president said to reporters before boarding Air Force One on Friday. "We're going to take a look at what he had, what he gave, what he's talking about, also where he is right now."
Trump has called the writer "gutless," and while Sullivan doesn't agree with that sentiment, she acknowledged that the anonymous nature of the piece is something of a detractor.
"If you're going to say something like this that's so negative and so detrimental, it would be much more important to put your name behind it," she said.
The Times only identified the writer as a "senior official". Many of President Trump's advisers, including Mike Pence, Steve Mnuchin, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mike Pompeo, and Nikki Haley, have adamantly denied they are behind the piece.
But Sullivan doesn't think the author will be hidden for long.
"I don't think this is going to be a case like Watergate's Deep Throat, where the person, Mark Felt, was a secret for actually decades from almost everyone, I think we're going to know who this person is."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/should-the-new-york-times-have-published-trump-op-ed).
Student loan collection company Navient agreed to cancel $1.7 billion in debt and paid more than $140 million in other penalties to settle a lawsuit over abusive lending practices. Josh Shapiro, the attorney general of Pennsylvania who led negotiations in the settlement, joined Cheddar to go over the details of the company's predatory lending. "What Navient would do is charge [borrowers] these exorbitantly high rates, even though they knew people couldn't pay them or they would likely default on them," he explained.
The January 6 committee has subpoenaed four tech giants for more information on what they did and didn't do leading up to last year's deadly Capitol insurrection. Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit were asked to assist the investigation in August, but the committee says their responses have been 'inadequate.' Craig Timberg, a national technology reporter at the Washington Post, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more details about the subpoenas, why this is happening now, and how it might impact social media companies moving forward.
With the Australian Open set to begin on Monday, Novak Djokovic is once again being threatened with deportation from Australia after his visa was briefly reinstated and revoked again over alleged discrepancies. Djokovic’s team will sit for an Immigration hearing on Saturday.
Makena Kelly, politics reporter at The Verge, joins Cheddar News to discuss what's next for net neutrality as Biden's other nominee for the FCC, Gigi Sohn, awaits votes from the committee and Senate.
Jewell Jackson McCabe, chair of the Keep Love Alive Campaign and founder of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and Marvin Owens, chief engagement officer of Impact Shares and former senior director of Economic Development at the NAACP, join Cheddar News to reflect on racial issues still prevalent in America.
Hagar Chemali, Host of 'Oh My World' on Youtube and Former Spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the UN, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to share her expert insight into what the future of diplomacy could look like as the Russia-Ukraine crisis deepens.
Markets opened higher on the first trading day of the new year as investors continue to watch inflation and the rapid spread of the omicron variant in the U.S. Frances Newton Stacy, Optimal Capital Dir. of Strategy/Market Analyst joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
Markets opened lower this morning as investors rounded out a wild 2021. Jay Hatfield, CEO Infrastructure Capital Advisors, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss which sectors and industries to watch in the new year.
Markets opened higher as investors react to positive data on the labor front, with weekly jobless claims falling to 198,000 for the week ending December 25. Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the market open.
