Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk: The New York Times has published an Op-Ed article by an unnamed official of US President Donald Trump’s administration who claimed of a “quiet resistance” among some of Trump’s own advisers who have secretly and deliberately tried to remove him from the officer due to his “reckless decisions.”
The official also called President Trump “erratic” in the Op-Ed article published on Wednesday, which has reverberated inside the West Wing and across the media spectrum, reports The New York Times.
In response to the report, Trump said, “We have somebody in what I call the failing New York Times talking about he’s part of the resistance within the Trump administration — this is what we have to deal with.”
The Failing New York Times! pic.twitter.com/SHsXvYKpBf
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018
He also demanded that The New York Times turn the author of the Op-Ed to the government at once, and termed the article as “gutless”.
Trump also called the author of the Op-Ed a “coward” and urged him to resign.
Does the so-called “Senior Administration Official” really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018
The unnamed official in the article raised questions about the president’s capacity to govern and the responsibilities and duties of the people who work for him.
He claimed that “unsung heroes” on his team were “working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”
TREASON?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018
The official clearly believes in a “sense of mission in being in government” and felt “quite strongly that they needed to speak out at an important moment in our history”, Jim Dao, Op-Ed editor of The New York Times, told Politico.
“This was a very strongly, clearly written piece by someone who was staking out what we felt was a very principled position that deserved an airing,” he said.
The material of the article was important enough to the public interest to merit the exception of granting anonymity to its writer, Dao said.
The Op-Ed came a day after reports about a new book, “Fear,” by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post.
The book revealed efforts by aides to secretly block the president when they believe he may act dangerously.
According to The Washington Post, the book depicts “Trump’s inner sanctum” as trying “to control his impulses and prevent disasters.”
The Op-Ed author said “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” in the first-person opinion piece, which hit the Washington and the NY Times newsroom like a bolt from the blue.
The article also raised an array of question on ethical and journalistic grounds, including whether the NY Times reporters should now identify the anonymous author of the piece.
The article was submitted to Times opinion editors last week through an intermediary, Dao said.
“It was clear early on that the writer wanted anonymity, but we didn’t grant anything until we read it and we were confident that they were who they said they were,” he said.
Meanwhile, Times reporter Jodi Kantor said on Twitter, “So basically: Times reporters now must try to unearth the identity of an author that our colleagues in Opinion have sworn to protect with anonymity?”
“Or is the entire newspaper bound by the promise of anonymity? I don’t think so, but this is fascinating. Not sure if there’s precedent,” she added.
So basically: Times reporters now must try to unearth the identity of an author that our colleagues in Opinion have sworn to protect with anonymity? https://t.co/wj2nKmDHz9
— Jodi Kantor (@jodikantor) September 5, 2018
Although its news and opinion sections run separately, it might still end up being a strategic concern for Times if its political sources are spooked by its news reporters working to reveal identity of its editorial sources.
The Times’ opinion section granted writers anonymity in the past when it was clear that the author would be in danger if his or her identity were revealed. This is the first time “in anyone’s memory” that the Times granted anonymity to a US official, Dao said.
The Times said it withheld the author’s identity because his “job would be jeopardised by its disclosure.”
Times reporters also frequently use the same justification to grant sources anonymity. However, Dao said that Op-Ed editors view an official speaking out as a writer, not a source, in sharp contrast to the way reporters view sources.
“We don’t call these people sources, we call them writers,” Dao said.
The op-ed page is a platform to “let people express themselves in their own words” and that “there was no effort to hide, mask or otherwise distort the person’s writing voice,” he said.
He added that the Times’ Op-Ed’s mission is “to get people to write as honestly as they can about what they’re experiencing.”
In the article, the senior administration official claimed high-ranking staff members were “working diligently from within to frustrate parts of [Trump’s] agenda and his worst inclinations”.
The author also claimed there were discussions on invoking the 25th Amendment to possibly remove the president from office.
The first-person perspective of the article helped it become viral quickly across social media.
“We are incredibly proud to have published this piece, which adds significant value to the public’s understanding of what is going on in the Trump administration from someone who is in a position to know,” said Eileen Murphy, a Times spokeswoman.
