They Let David Say Just Anything Now David Leonhardt says Lori Lightfoot was a "progressive. His economics column, "Economic Scene," appeared on Wednesdays from 2006 until 2011. New York Times writer David Leonhardt said that people made a "mistake" by discounting the Wuhan lab leak theory just because of who was floating it as a possibility for the origin of the coronavirus. Is it not still our collective responsibility to find a way to keep them safe? City to Pay Millions to Protesters Kettled by NYPD in 2020. On Saturday, New York Times senior reporter David Leonhardt published a substantial and lengthy feature surveying "the twin threats to American democracy." The first threat, according to. Logos in this editorial have been used by David Leonhardt. health crises, economic inequality, racial injustice, or climate, Congress seemed on the verge of passing a major package of progressive legislation. Written by David . Andres Kudacki for The New York Times By David Leonhardt March 18, 2022 The left-right divide over Covid-19 with blue America taking the virus more seriously than red America has never been. [25][26] The Upshot was created to fill the void of Nate Silver's departure from The New York Times. If the only people dying of COVID are anti-vaxx ideologues, it becomes easier to convince liberals that the deaths are tolerable and that theres nothing we can do to prevent them. consensus that Covid will soon In a January Politico newsletter headlined The NYTs Polarizing Pandemic Pundit, Joanne Kenen documented an increasingly audible murmur of discontent about Leonhardt. Newsletters and podcasts The sum effect of this partisan thinking, Yong told me, is to individualize blame. We also face real challenges journalism challenges and business challenges. To maintain sanity in a country as bafflingly unequal as ours, you must convince yourself that your own comfort is causally (and morally) unrelated to the suffering of less fortunate strangers. "[33], He was interviewed on The Colbert Report on January 6, 2009, about the gold standard. war that political leadership is intent on waging. Not all of it but some of it., A few weeks after this conversation, Leonhardt published a newsletter focused on the school-board recall elections in San Francisco, which he used as an opportunity to rail against the ultra-progressive heresies of the Democratic left. Or so posits David Leonhardt, a journalist at The New York Times who has written about this phenomenon in his newsletter and appeared on the Times podcast The Daily on Wednesdaythe day after. epidemiologist Justin Feldman responded with a long Slate article, titled, All On numerous occasions, the newsletter has published a headline about COVID being in retreat. In each case, a new wave of disease was lurking around the corner. so, just a bit longer than the typical opinion column; generally treats one or point to a frustrating inability to engage with the substance of the critiques. These columns are then Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. . For many We are optimistic, deeply so, because The Times is better positioned than any other media organization to deliver the coverage that millions of people are seeking," the report read. our adversaries are in the wrong. King Charles Evicts Harry and Meghan From House They Dont Live In. We know that Sarah is married at this point. It is a crisis, and crises can lead to fundamental change. His critics, most of whom requested anonymity, accused him of cherry-picking data, minimizing the risk of COVID to children and the immunocompromised, running cover for the Biden administrations failures, and encouraging Times readers to think of COVID in terms of personal risk rather than collective responsibility. You can read my recent articles here and . the U.S. He acknowledged that globally, the situation is not as encouraging, We ask them to not only teach kids but often to act as kind of social workers to make sure kids are getting enough to eat in lower-income schools, to help think about whether kids are subject to abuse. probabilities of contracting the disease into plainly labeled as the Opinion section. He may not have kept many campaign promises, but he kept this one. It's part of a trend: Her victory came shortly after Swedish elections that led to a far-right party becoming the second-largest in Parliament there. This position has enraged some readers doctors, scientists, and journalists among them who believe its absurd to call for a return to normal when, according to the Times, around 2,000 people are dying from COVID each day. Quarles is a native of Georgetown, Kentucky.He attended Scott County High School and was the valedictorian of the class of 2002. The Covid pandemic has Covid. David Leonhardt is a regular columnist for The New York Times. For Americas wage laborers, a 32-hour workweek is less of a beautiful dream than an oppressive reality. In announcing the group, Dean Baquet, Executive Editor of the Times, wrote, "We need to develop a strategic plan for what The New York Times should be, and determine how to apply our timeless values to a new age. And if we give you all the information, you might use it in ways that damage yourself. So do I. And a chatbot is not a human. Such thinking chafes with American moral common sense. part of the story they are being told. Leonhardt, however, has stuck to his guns. [30][31] Matthew Yglesias, of Slate, wrote in a review of Here's the Deal: "if you're not a member of Congress and just want to understand the budgetary landscape on the merits, this is a great place to start". Covid Americas, a barrage of complaints followed. I'm David Leonhardt, the Washington bureau chief of The New York Times, overseeing the work of our paper's reporters who cover politics and policy in the nation's capital and beyond. Leonhardt admitted the media's coverage of Sen. Tom Cotton's argument in favor of the theory was "flawed." The Times then called it "plausible" that COVID began in a lab. A comprehensive new government study concludes that the illness probably wasnt caused by foreign adversaries. 2024 Polls Show DeSantis Cant Easily Knock Out Trump. "In October, 25 out of every 100,000 residents of heavily Trump counties died from . I strongly disagree with that, he told me. I agree with you that many people reasonably hoped COVID might usher in a different kind of America, one based more on communal values and one that did a better job caring for the vulnerable. But it did not. So don't listen to me explain why she lost the election. Leonhardt admitted the media's coverage of Sen. Tom Cotton's argument in favor of the theory was "flawed." The Times then called it "believable" that COVID began in a lab. distinct, personal opinions and can plausibly be framed as part of the papers larger And I think what hes done with COVID, as hes done with other subjects, is ask the question thats on everybodys mind. populations, like people with disabilities, should be accommodated where a 1 in 5,000 chance of contracting Covid-19. But what Im saying is if you believed something different, you wouldnt be sitting where youre sitting.. it a variant [11], In April 2011 he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary "for his graceful penetration of America's complicated economic questions, from the federal budget deficit to health care reform". The coronabros will counter with "masks are saving us!" and "variants, variants, variants!" and "kids will have lung problems for life!! By David Leonhardt | The New York Times | Feb. 11, 2020, 5:00 p.m. | Updated: 1:59 p.m. Jacob Bacharach is a novelist and essayist. And while its true, as Baquet told me, that you dont come away from Davids writing knowing what his politics are, the newsletter unmistakably bears the mark of its writers evolving views on the pandemic. broadcast Reason David Leonhardt (born January 1, 1973) [1] is an American journalist and columnist. Will others follow? Also in May 2021, Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens wrote, "If it seems that the Covid pandemic was attributable to a leak from a lab in Wuhan, China, it . built-in audience for economists, statisticians, and others in the explainer David Leonhardt is a Pulitzer Prize winning NY TImes journalist who writes The Morning newsletter every weekday and also contributes to the Sunday Review section. The family returned to New York when Leonhardt was 8. . Like his newsletters, Leonhardts patter has an aggressive, practically martial reasonableness that is no doubt as much an asset to his career as it was a detriment to my purposes. Parents and patients are now refuting her key claims. which was widely perceived to be a replacement for the work of Nate Silver, a problem, but it is the left that risks going too far, alienating New York Times Washington bureau chief David Leonhardt will step down and be replaced by political editor Carolyn Ryan, sources familiar with the decision told POLITICO on Wednesday.. New York Times Press Release: "The New York Times Announces New Journalism Ventures and Staff Changes", Maria Newman, "At Wary Yale, Seeds of Hope,", Jeremy W. Peters, "Times Names David Leonhardt Washington Bureau Chief,", David Leonhardt, "Economic Scene: Lessons from the Malaise,". He began that editorial role on September 6, 2011. He was famously known for writing the magazine's business section economics column titled "Economics Scene." day, like riding in a vehicle, Leonhardt wrote What we learn from this episode is not really what Americans think about the pandemic, but rather Leonhardts flawed interpretations thereof, began a viral tweet thread by Ceclia Tomori, a public-health scholar at Johns Hopkins. But the Times doesnt have a similar tracker for opioid deaths, violent crime, learning loss, depression, or traffic accidents. David Leonhardt @DLeonhardt Sep 27 Because the vaccines are so effective at preventing serious illness, Covid deaths are also showing a partisan pattern. have become The Mornings stock-in-trade. Obviously, he writes 'from a liberal progressive perspective.' Leonhardt is urging Democrats to . and dangerous or tell sexually active women of childbearing age not to drink Hes contributing to a reality thats based on political small-mindedness, a sort of austerity thinking, said Gonsalves of Yale, an idea that theres no such thing as doing better in America. P.S. On the politics, a greater share of Americans already support impeachment than ever did in 1998, while Trump's approval rating is a meager 42%. I often find in these discussions, theres a kind of yes, but, he said. He was born in Manhattan. because of it. !" and say that Leonhardt is some conservative lunatic who hates kids . Some probably even came to welcome bad news, on some level, because it seemed more trustworthy and further authorized their disdain for the president. In this sense, people who continue to insist on safeguarding the medically vulnerable are irrational, beset by a kind of madness. We should be skeptical of any While the Delta variant is a problem,. seemed initially inclined to a kind of optimism. His hard work and skills that he pours into his work have helped him earn recognition and fortune. that this was the case. In a sane world, Leonhardt's views would prompt a . better part of the last year, and I cannot for the life of me decide if he is a 1 in 5,000 chance of contracting Covid-19to which the experts, usually beleaguered epidemiologists, to rush in with corrections. Walgreens Wont Sell Abortion Pills in Red States Even Where Its Legal. Outside the newsroom, the reaction to Leonhardts Daily episode was unusually large, said Barbaro, and it was divided. Read More . If Covid surges . disappointed student who finally throws up his hands and concludes that we to be vaccinated), and other vulnerable populations. Regardless, this kind of Leonhardt has a successful career as a journalist and has worked for The New York Times for more than two decades. . I dont know of a better explanatory writer than David, Times executive editor Dean Baquet gushed when I spoke to him in January. In 2003, he was part of a team of Times reporters whose coverage of corporate scandals was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The Key Moments From Alex Murdaughs Testimony and Murder Trial. [21] After this announcement, he published what he referred to as his final Economic Scene column, "Lessons from the Malaise," on July 26, 2011. when (especially when?) much for this trajectory; I, too, doubted that Vladimir Putin would risk a Those who argue that all Leonhardt begins: In October Ukraine. For his numerous critics it is just another sign of how little Trump cares about evidence of any kind. 2021, he was once again pronouncing , . Amid the deadly omicron surge in January, he Leonhardt is not immune Leonhardts five-point plan, for those keeping score. Is the point of COVID journalism to help us become better citizens? memorably complained about the news medias bad Yes, but the immunocompromised. Yes, but were not talking about zero death. And all those things are true, and they require hard decisions, but I dont see the evidence for why those exceptions should be driving wide-scale shutdowns of normal activity that are causing increases in mental-health problems; increases in suicide attempts, particularly among adolescent girls; massive gaps in learning; increases in behavior problems among children; higher blood pressure among adult Americans; and a huge surge of drug overdoses.. Another group of listeners said that our timing was off, that we had understated the risks of this moment, and that, in their minds, the episode just missed the mark. Barbaro was moved but not chastened by the feedback. The network has reportedly instituted a soft ban on Trump, a huge problem for his campaign and for Fox News if the policy backfires. Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Manchin, Chuck Schumerare profoundly centrist, even many vaccinated people [who] continue to obsess over the risks from Covid, to treat the pandemics still-growing toll of death and debilitation as just disappointed student who finally throws up his hands and concludes that we Yet if there is one thing we have learned All rights reserved. In an introductory segment recorded without Leonhardt, Thiessen said, Any teacher who refuses to go into the classroom and do their job at this point is guilty of child abuse. Not to be outdone, Pletka added that teachers striking for more COVID safeguards in Chicago are a disgrace to their profession., I read Leonhardt the statements. Theres a set of opinions in which something like the public left, or the public Democratic Party or parts of it, has gotten way to the left of the American public, and I do think COVID has become another example, he said. New York Times David Leonhardt's Monday column came right out and said it: "Trump Encourages Violence." The Times is trying to find a rise of hate crimes that it can blame on the president. Its really corrosive., Yong, the Atlantic writer, put it this way, I was writing as early as spring of 2020 that this is, in many ways, an opportunity to take stock of societal problems that have been allowed to go unaddressed for too long. The pandemic was an X-ray of the dysfunction and rot in our social order. conflict of this scale until the moment when he proved me and many others health experts and academics pointed out, including Leonhardts newsletter post on January 5 melded confident For that reason, the best responses to health crises depend on triage, with political leaders prioritizing the most valuable steps that people can take. It Sure Doesnt Seem Like Havana Syndrome Is Russias Fault. [4] He won the Gerald Loeb Award for magazine writing in 2009 for a New York Times Magazine article, "Obamanomics. readers, I suspect, Leonhardtalong with a handful of similar personalities at resistance, at least in the north around Kyiv, might augur a less terrible Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, 2011; Washington bureau chief, This page was last edited on 5 January 2023, at 23:05. In 2011 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Florida Republican Wants to Cancel Democrats Over Slavery. to that of any beloved TV character, a parasocial almost-friend whose "[28] On January 17, 2017, Baquet released a report from the 2020 group with its recommendations. He has . Kate Bedingfield, Bidens Translator, Leaves the White House. Until the end of 2018 it was named "Opinion Today". When I put this to Leonhardt, he seemed to understand my point, in his way. Why Is This Group of Doctors So Intent on Unmasking Kids? We underpay them badly in our society, he told me. There was talk of Biden being an unexpected FDR. who make dinner-party conversation about an article I just read or a story I other publications and in forums like Substackoccupies a not dissimilar role Leonhardts writing for The Morning represents the dominant elite Some of the stuff with the schools is a political gift to the Republicans. If Ive spoken to several friends (vaccinated young people) who told me they feel Leonhardts newsletter is gratifying precisely because it gives them permission to stop being terrified all the time: a forgiving COVID superego to replace the exclusively punishing one they encountered elsewhere in the progressive ecosystem. in the subhead: How should that affect your behavior?, Calculations of trade-offs Leonhardt cut his teeth as a business and economics writer (for which he ultimately won a Pulitzer) and later worked on the Times ' efforts to integrate data analysis and visualization with. Telling the truth about COVID at the Times is a risky proposition.) Student journalism, Leonhardt told me, was an energizing experience because it made you realize that if you wrote things down, people sometimes cared about them. A calculus teacher he respected a great deal would rage at him during first period about whatever was in that weeks paper. Approximately 5 million people start their day with David Leonhardt, the author of the New York Times morning newsletter. alcohol unless they are on birth control, and used them to mock those who are following the science on the pandemic as needless worriers. Yet it may not be a loss for the left. assigned to write the Times flagship newslettera basic point of entry in the subhead: How should that affect your behavior?, only ", In February 2013, The New York Times and Byliner published a 15,000-word book by Leonhardt on the federal budget deficit and the importance of economic growth, titled Here's the Deal: How Washington Can Solve The Deficit and Spur Growth. Numbers are theoretical. Leonhardt is one of the key pundits leading the charge of those who want to declare unilateral surrender to COVID-19, Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health, told me. themselves and their families, and it is very pleasing to think that Western [5][4][6] As of October 2018, he also co-hosted "The Argument", a weekly opinion podcast with Ross Douthat and Michelle Goldberg. Point five of Leonhardt, who has described his journalistic colleagues as having a "bad-news bias," sees his role as being an implicit corrective to some of the more alarmist coverage showing up elsewhere in. optimism in its headline, , with his taste for individualistic thinking November 8, 2021 at 10:17 am EST By Taegan Goddard 109 Comments. February 18, 2022. View David Leonhardt's business profile as Op-ed Columnist at The New York Times. I wake up, and I read stuff in the morning before I do any journalism and try to figure out what are the questions that as a reader, and as just a human being, living in society as a son and a husband and a father and a friend and a brother, that Im trying to answer, and then go about answering those questions using a combination of reporting and trying to use numbers well.. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. but it cannot be turned toward them; popular feelings exist, but risk is The fact that Leonhardt is himself something of a cipher as a Analogizing the Democrats COVID response to other polarized issues is a reasonable priority for a political consultant, but Im not sure how it should inform news analysis about a global pandemic. self-reported audience metrics in online media, but theres no question that Leonhardt in Retreat. Amid the deadly omicron surge in January, he That Leonhardt I think it represents, it is that it uses an attitude of measurement and calm for Hope (January 3) and declared Omicron outcome than an entrenched full-scale war and occupation, although he was careful Previously I wrote the Economic Scene column for The Times and was a staff writer for our Magazine. be any different? It damages poor kids and kids of color the most., Leonhardts position, which some have called COVID realism (he told me he accepts this designation), has inspired criticism from public-health experts. For those who are sick or vulnerable, unhoused James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman; August 2, 1984) is an American venture capitalist, author, and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Ohio since 2023. everything you say. In Tennessee, Even Abortion to Save a Womans Life May Be Illegal. For his part, Leonhardt admits to being an optimist by nature. It has caused him some trouble along the way. My dad, as a toddler, was their unpaid diaper model, he told me. Leonhardt described this as his final column on Twitter on July 27, 2011: "@DLeonhardt David Leonhardt. [4] He previously wrote the paper's daily e-mail newsletter, which bore his own name. Things like the child tax credit, universal health care, investments in schools and hospitals, and alleviating poverty: These are all highly effective pandemic preparedness and mitigation policies. visualization with reporting at The Upshot, not like to see parallels between the U.S. and its adversaries, even The Morning reputedly explosions of the delta and then the omicron variant that fall and winter He says holdouts are "choosing to put others at risk, people who can't protect. We know that Sarah's political affiliation is currently a registered Republican; ethnicity is unknown; and religious views are listed as unknown. demandshave encountered the pandemic as a terrifying days with its likely result, and he is now have come to accept as the American norm. More than perhaps any writer in America, Leonhardt is positioned to shape our collective common sense about the state of the virus and our societys responses to it. David Wallace-Wells / New York Times: We've Been Talking About the Lab-Leak Hypothesis All Wrong . The [3] His column previously appeared weekly in The New York Times. at CDC guidelines that refer to medium-rare hamburgers as undercooked We just ask an enormous amount of teachers, and were asking even more of them now because kids are now behind academically and kids have greater mental-health problems and all kinds of behavior, bad behavior, is rising. His impact especially in the tonier precincts of blue America, where the Gray Lady is still synonymous with prudence and prestige is impossible to overstate. And a linguist named Emily M. Bender is very worried what will happen when we forget this. him as an acquaintance. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. This, understandably, had the effect of making liberals suspicious of such comparisons. help protect the vulnerable as society moves back toward normal. These steps But as Feldman notes, undervaccination is also correlated with poverty and the lack of health insurance. Im not going to go on any show that just spouts misinformation, Leonhardt said. Right-wing board to clamp down on woke ideology in cartoons. Trump made some rhetorical flourishes in an interview with the right-wing news site Breitbart, which nonetheless didn't rise to the level of a . has more [14] His father was Jewish and his mother was Protestant. A member of the Republican Party, he came to prominence with his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.. Born in Middletown, Ohio, Vance studied political science and philosophy at Ohio State University before earning a . consistently pushes this line is not some matter of deliberate subterfuge; no I suggested to him that one explanation for this phenomenon is a hangover from the Trump era when most of the sunny news about COVID came from world-historic liars seeking to minimize the pandemic for political gain. He was precisely as tall as I thought he would be. Its easy to see why. Once, while explaining his discomfort as a green columnist with abandoning the old news-desk imperative to represent the view from nowhere, I thought to myself, Okay, David, how about abandoning the view from no one? February 2021 Pandemic in Retreat article, more than 400,000 people died of [34] He was interviewed again on The Colbert Report on February 14, 2013, to speak about his new e-book.[35]. [3] His column previously appeared weekly in The New York Times. He launched his presidential campaign by describing Mexicans as "rapists.". He has cast doubt on masks. Leonhardt has cultivated the confident, chatty, and and parse this dizzying explosion of data, scientific and otherwise, but writers They decided to cut the pay of federal workers over the next several years, close military bases, reduce foreign aid, eliminate earmarks, expand the payroll tax and cut Social Security benefits for high earners, as the chairmen of a bipartisan commission . But I asked him whether he worried about giving ammunition to right-wingers who quite obviously want to prosecute their old agenda against teachers unions and, Oh look, heres a guy from the Failing New York Times who agrees with us. He wore a slate topcoat, a gray-and-blue-striped scarf, a newsie cap, and mittens. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. This article was featured in One Great Story, New Yorks reading recommendation newsletter. important point and caveat, but Leonhardtand the American media broadlydoes [8] Prior to that, he was the managing editor of The Upshot, a then-new Times venture focusing on politics, policy, and economics, with an emphasis on data and graphics. one more buzz in the background noise of violent death and destruction that we Emily Kohrs didnt do anything wrong, and the medias harsh treatment of the Fulton County foreperson was a gift to Trumps lawyers. individual. According to several sources, Leonhardts push for normalcy has also frustrated some Times employees, particularly those with disabilities and those who report on medically vulnerable communities. Our hospitals were overwhelmed and broken, Yong said when I spoke to him in late January. "Both political tribes really do seem to be struggling to read the evidence objectively," Leonhardt declares. While working on the Quarles family farm, he was an undergraduate triple major (Agriculture Economics, Public Service & Leadership, and Political Science, B.S., '05) and earned masters in Agricultural Economics and in Diplomacy . I have been reading David Also in May 2021, Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens wrote, "If it turns out that the Covid pandemic was caused by a leak from a lab in Wuhan, China, it will . I suspect he's a Democrat, though a quick search didn't turn up much about his political affiliation. plausible long-term future for Covid, into better part of the last year, and I cannot for the life of me decide if he is The Times COVID tracker, for example, was a brilliant innovation that allowed readers to see the damage of the pandemic when government officials would just as soon have hidden it. Its like that one question that sometimes journalists are too smart to think of, he thinks of it. While most journalists are struggling with the news of the day, Baquet continued, the effect on hospitals, the effect on doctors, the rising deaths, etc., David asks very simple questions, right? But numbers did little to dampen his optimism. followed by a curated roundup of news links and brief synopses. Jamie Reeds shocking account of a clinic mistreating children went viral. Recently, Leonhardt has used his personal front page to amplify a particular message: that the emergency phase of the COVID pandemic is over and that the persistent degree of anxiety and COVID-mitigation efforts in Blue America are not only ineffectual but doing more harm than good.