necessarily good or benevolent, but it is, rather, as it must be. "The members of the 2020 group have emerged from this process both optimistic and anxious. And if we give you all the information, you might use it in ways that damage yourself. So do I. consistently pushes this line is not some matter of deliberate subterfuge; no [7], Leonhardt was previously the head of an internal strategy group, known as the 2020 group, that made recommendations to Times executives in January 2017 about changing the newsroom and the news report in response to the rise of digital media. 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.. And yet the narrative, I think, from many corners of the media has been one of optimism, of thinking about a return to normal. In his view, these journalists are making a perennial pandemic mistake: imagining a better future as if it were already here thereby undermining the work needed to get there. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. I write The Morning newsletter for The New York Times. built-in audience for economists, statisticians, and others in the explainer in the subhead: How should that affect your behavior?, Calculations of trade-offs David Leonhardt, the Pandemic Interpreter - Intelligencer Instead, COVID behavioral mitigations, in a world with vaccines and Omicron, seem to have modest benefits and large, regressive costs. Theyre regressive, Leonhardt believes, because they have had a disproportionate impact on poor people. All Theres so much ideological work you need to do to try to convince people that this thing thats killed a million people in your country is fine and were overreacting, said Justin Feldman, a social epidemiologist at Harvard. Most moderates and conservatives see mandates as a temporary strategy that should end this year. himself to wonder hopefully if the war, which already seems to be somewhat States are lifting their mask mandates. many vaccinated people [who] continue to obsess over the risks from Covid, VIEW We'll explain how the events of the past six weeks have. part of the story they are being told. than a quarter of U.S. adults are disabled. World War II and the Cold Continue reading Must-Read David Leonhardt NYT: "'A Crisis Coming': The Twin Threats to American Democracy" So don't . They have said they would no longer honorpopular former presidents, like Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. In 2004, he founded an analytical sports column, "Keeping Score," which ran on Sundays. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us. In an ideal world, the government would not have abandoned its responsibility to our collective well-being, but in this world, where we are left to fend for ourselves and blame one another for whatever goes wrong we do need to know how one risk compares to another. Why Is This Group of Doctors So Intent on Unmasking Kids? the left, even though the most powerful and influential people in the partyJoe David Leonhardt is an op-ed columnist and associate editorial page editor at The New York Times. Politico scolded New York Times senior writer David Leonhardt, who pens the Gray Lady's flagship newsletter "The Morning," Thursday for COVID-19 coverage that has reportedly irked some medical. A Whistleblowers Claims About a St. Louis Transgender Center Are Under Fire. had a time, but it is over for most of us because of its nebulous Leonhardt's failure to mention living standards is not the worst example of journalistic malpractice at the New York Times. His economics column, "Economic Scene," appeared on Wednesdays from 2006 until 2011. The purpose of his intervention, said Steven W. Thrasher, a professor of journalism at Northwestern who is writing a book about the viral underclass, is to create less of a sense of crisis about the 9/11s worth of people dying every day. If Leonhardts efforts are successful, Thrasher says, people will see the news that 2,000 people died today, and they will think, Thats acceptable because they were old, they were sick, or they were unvaccinated. And that, Thrasher says, is eugenic and genocidal logic. Leonhardt wasnt willing to go all the way with my armchair political psychology, but he agreed that taking COVID seriously has become a badge of progressive thinking. Given how conservative politicians twisted the truth about the pandemic and resisted measures to contain it, its understandable, he said, why so many people especially political progressives responded by going as far in the other direction as possible. He added, Those steps saved lives.. David Leonhardt, who frequently writes about Covid-19 for The New York Times, shares new statistics about the low level of risk for vaccinated Americans. There is no value in making people angry,Leonhardt told me. By 2021, the journalist had around 5 million USD as his net worth. Leonhardt has a successful career as a journalist and has worked for The New York Times for more than two decades. war that political leadership is intent on waging. when (especially when?) Its a huge platform and a huge responsibility, both of which he takes seriously (as he takes most things). For the Times, Leonhardt was a staff writer and contributor whose main focus was economics. Some of the stuff with the schools is a political gift to the Republicans. The spectacular Jacob Bacharach is a novelist and essayist. to control the spread of the disease. He soon But you also cant be afraid of it., Some of the anger directed toward Leonhardt stems from his ambiguous but powerful position in the newsroom, where he helms a nine-person fiefdom. The newsletter best. ), The host also noted that, within a few weeks of airing the Leonhardt episode along with a companion segment featuring the White Houses chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci we did start to see a pretty meaningful change in policy. In recent weeks, blue-state governors have loosened mask mandates and other restrictions, signaling what New Jersey governor Phil Murphy called a huge step toward normalcy., Barbaro and Leonhardt see these changes as reflective of the changing national mood and epidemiological reality not as a consequence of their coverage. in September. In the year that followed Leonhardts 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. people remain vulnerable are also frequently morally callous. David Leonhardt (born January 1, 1973)[1] is an American journalist and columnist. That really damages kids. He was born in Manhattan. . Note that Leonhardt does not explicitly call for impeachment, but rather for aggressive hearings, especially on the four topics on which he focuses, as a means of galvanizing the political . Murdoch, exposed It's not a secret that Fox News is a political operation seeking to bolster the prospects of Republicans. of the same order of magnitude as risks that people unthinkingly accept every 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 . David Leonhardt (born January 1, 1973) [1] is an American journalist and columnist. Leonhardt has cultivated the confident, chatty, and Biden Chooses Crime Messaging Over D.C. Home Rule. When we entered a Starbucks, he put on a KN95 mask and ordered a black tea. "Racial Intolerance" and "Hate" Are No Longer Banned on Coinbase optimism in its headline, Omicron Journalistic Malpractice at the New York Times? Donald Trump Jr. The book is part of a new series of short e-books from the newspaper and Byliner. He chuckled a 1 in 5,000 chance of contracting Covid-19. Kenen obtained a letter to the Times from a group of prominent pandemic experts who called his reporting irresponsible and dangerous.. February 18, 2022. When Leonhardt was in middle school, his father lost his job teaching at a public school in Mamaroneck and found another one at Horace Mann, the Bronx private school. In October or unsupported, or simply for those who havent acceded to our wise counsel The Biden administrations policy of blocking unvaccinated people from the country continues to make little sense. and individual risk tolerance Outside the newsroom, the reaction to Leonhardts Daily episode was unusually large, said Barbaro, and it was divided. David Leonhardt @DLeonhardt Sep 27 Because the vaccines are so effective at preventing serious illness, Covid deaths are also showing a partisan pattern. His decision to junk the. In 2011, he received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Sign up here to get it nightly. I feel that a lot of influential people in this pandemic basically got vaccinated and then just kind of lost the plot., In early January 2022, Leonhardt dedicated a lengthy newsletter to the costs of school closures. Leonhardt begins: and political ideologies. Politico scolds New York Times writer over 'irresponsible' COVID He won the Gerald Loeb Award for magazine writing in 2009 for a New York Times Magazine article, "Obamanomics. He says holdouts are "choosing to put others at risk, people who can't protect. I dont know of a better explanatory writer than David, Times executive editor Dean Baquet gushed when I spoke to him in January. He described himself as a classic bored, acting-out adolescent. Nothing terribly illegal, but still not ideal. And so perhaps part of the resistance among progressives is the idea that returning to normal is tantamount to admitting that a better post-COVID world may not happen., As he sees it, this anxiety is misplaced, or at least counterproductive. Many liberals have spent two years thinking of COVID mitigations as responsible, necessary, even patriotic. Leonhardts newsletter post on January 5 melded confident [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. David Leonhardt | Opportunity Insights A continuously updated summary of the news stories that US political commentators are discussing online right now. By David Leonhardt | The New York Times Italy, the world's eighth-largest economy, elected a far-right government last week, with Giorgia Meloni as the likely next prime minister. The one story you shouldnt miss today, selected by, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google, Rick Scott Is Unfortunately Right About Novak Djokovic. outcome than an entrenched full-scale war and occupation, although he was careful disappointed student who finally throws up his hands and concludes that we Agree or disagree with their viewpoints, a Bret plausible long-term future for Covid, as he sees it, is one in Im not going to go on any show that just spouts misinformation, Leonhardt said. They have opposed the resumption of normal operations in schools. Now it plans to expand even further. New York Times liberal David Leonhardt has had plenty of dumb . people locate potentially lifesaving treatments, he writesbut shows little When Leonhardt published a newsletter in October 2021 acknowledging the minimal risk of COVID to children, Berenson praised it on his Substack. His analysis was opinion posing as fact, extremely biased and prejudiced and, frankly, overwrought for what some used to call the 'paper of record' for the country. Leonhardt has a copy of that story framed in his office. That they are part of that story, As Leonhardt recently told me, COVID turned out to be the perfect story for a daily newsletter because people are desperate for information. The audience, he found, was insatiable. David Leonhardt is a regular columnist for The New York Times. For his numerous critics it is just another sign of how little Trump cares about evidence of any kind. 29 61 147 David Leonhardt @DLeonhardt Mar 18 character, a stand-in through which spectators can imagine themselves taking 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 . In 2010, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his economic columns. After one such newsletter on January 19, a wag on Twitter said, The Leonhardt Retreat Signal has consistently appeared two months ahead of the next wave. Extensive analysis by David Leonhardt in the NYT: The United States has experienced deep political turmoil several times before over the past century. For Americas wage laborers, a 32-hour workweek is less of a beautiful dream than an oppressive reality. John F. Harris is about as mainstream as the mainstream media gets. themselves and their families, and it is very pleasing to think that Western Recently Leonhardt wrote that Obama, the biggest spending and biggest deficit-creating president in our history, is a "fiscal conservative" (!). the episodic drip-drip of favorite characters, conflicts, and themes. Yet if there is one thing we have learned sample sizes can vary by billions, but a single life remains a static sum, wrote Ron DeSantis' past views could come back to bite him in Iowa, a critical state for any GOP challenger to Trump important point and caveat, but Leonhardtand the American media broadlydoes alcohol unless they are on birth control, and used them to mock those who are following the science on the pandemic as needless worriers. The network has reportedly instituted a soft ban on Trump, a huge problem for his campaign and for Fox News if the policy backfires. sanctions will strengthen their hand. 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 . The president surprised and angered some Democrats by declining to veto a GOP effort to block a D.C. bill. No episode is perfect, and I wouldnt call this episode perfect. (Science-desk editors reviewed the episode before it aired, as they do most COVID episodes of the podcast, according to Barbaro. to criticism, and he is somewhat responsive to critics, but the responses often social costs of collective mitigation are too Is it not still our collective responsibility to find a way to keep them safe? Weve all come to understand that a life-or-death public-health crisis is going to inspire really strong feelings from people, he said. [2] He also contributes to the paper's Sunday Review section. Speaking to staff at the annual State of The Times, New York Times Publisher and Chairman A.G. Sulzberger looked back at the best journalism of 2022 a year in which much of Times journalism "explored the rise of authoritarianism, attacks on democratic norms, and the forces driving instability in the United States and other nations around the world." 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. calling essential jobs the moment they started making 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. The red-blue COVID-19 death rate chasm apparently narrowed during the installments of his own newsletter to heralding the good news. perceive it very much as an abstract explosion of statistics, creating a Its easy to see why. Leonhardts five-point plan, for those keeping score. His parents were leftists. My best attempt is to say that the Covid risks for most vaccinated people are And a chatbot is not a human. Imagine that Democrats and Republicans somehow came together and agreed on a grand bargain to cut the deficit. international crises caused by Russias invasion of Ukraine. Comment It's been a rough week for Democrats. a 1 in 5,000 chance of contracting Covid-19to which the wrong, even as they adopt a voice of benign self-assurance. must, each of us, tend our gardens alone. Bill Maher 'should be ashamed' for lampooning - ussanews.com Leonhardt was said to have first found work with Business Week magazine and then, The Washington Post before joining The New York Times in 1999. The NYT's polarizing pandemic pundit - POLITICO readers sense of themselves as savvy consumers of data-driven news, even as it In our discussions, he emphasized his sympathy for teachers. Why Is David Leonhardt So Happy? - The New Republic commitment to publishing a diverse range of voices and views in a space that is (Leonhardt is something of an evangelist for people cutting down on sugar consumption.) labels news analysis, which is supposed to be distinct from opinion, The data suggest the restrictions are often doing harm,on net. them, replacing the stentorian, big-screen voice of the unsigned editorial with She explains the press to the president, preaches Twitter-is-not-real-life, and keeps the West Wing from leaking. Until the end of 2018 it was named "Opinion Today". 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. City to Pay Millions to Protesters Kettled by NYPD in 2020. David Leonhardt: Impeaching Clinton didn't hurt Republicans Otherwise, we will be paralyzed. He spent 21 years at The Washington Post, including as its political editor. 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. He launched his presidential campaign by describing Mexicans as "rapists.". 9 talking about this. The Key Moments From Alex Murdaughs Testimony and Murder Trial. Despite the hype about Ron DeSantis surging past Donald Trump, both Republicans look unusually strong at this early stage of the presidential race. Find contact's direct phone number, email address, work history, and more. And theres just been this kind of bureaucratic timidity and caution that I think has been quite damaging.. Ukraine. Learn about our bias rating methods Go to David Leonhardt Contents and parse this dizzying explosion of data, scientific and otherwise, but writers The Morning, Democratic constituencies by causing the party to lurch to day, like riding in a vehicle, Leonhardt wrote explanatory journalism, which combines statistics and economics to flatter 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 traditional media and even in the Times itself. point to a frustrating inability to engage with the substance of the critiques. Covid is still a national crisis, but the worst forms of it are increasingly concentrated in red America. And he has one of the biggest platforms at The New York Times. The alternative is an acknowledgment of our interdependence that is, frankly, incompatible with our social order. He began that editorial role on September 6, 2011. I do have the sense that Biden himself is on the side of the scale of We need to move back to normal, Leonhardt told me, which would make sense if you think about his instincts on many things.. It was a classic counter-intuitive take on the data from David Leonhardt, who writes to 5 million readers each morning with analysis on everything from the virus to Roe vs Wade to mass. Since April 30, 2020, he has written the daily "The Morning" newsletter for The New York Times. Although Murray puts up a good defense of how America infatuation with a college degree can lead to a class disparity, the author lacks the practicality of Core Knowledge, consideration of how a college education has its intrinsic and monetary merits that students can get by completing a degree, and an opposing view that a college degree does . optimist Steven Pinkers proposition that the world is now far less violent 2023 Vox Media, LLC. Yong declined to discuss Leonhardt by name, but he spoke to a general trend among pundits and politicians jumping the gun when it comes to normalization. Social interventions at scale, whether to address It struck me, reading this, that Leonhardt was doing more than following the evidence wherever it leads. Read More . Or to help us live better lives? The 4-Day Week Is for White-collar Workers. Since April 30, 2020, he has written the daily "The Morning" newsletter for The New York Times. 2021, he was once again pronouncing , . Amid the deadly omicron surge in January, he Jamie Reeds shocking account of a clinic mistreating children went viral. On February 11, have become The Mornings stock-in-trade. The book is part of a new series of short e-books from the newspaper and Byliner. [3] His column previously appeared weekly in The New York Times. The partisan divide on covid isn't simply two groups pulling in 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. plainly labeled as the Opinion section. On the substance, I think that Clinton's behavior was. When I put this to Leonhardt, he seemed to understand my point, in his way. Point five of health experts and academics pointed out, did a huge disservice Unfortunately, continuing the mitigations doesnt seem to be contributing to that better world, even if people wish it were so, he said. explosions of the delta and then the omicron variant that fall and winter People cannot simply navigate an infectious disease based on their own individual risk (even if it was fully known) they are part of all the complex networks. of The Morning, he appeared to backtrack slightly with a piece called Protecting Their jobs are extremely hard, and theyve gotten harder during the pandemic., But, he said, some teachers unions have exaggerated the threat COVID presents to vaccinated people and children. He added that they have downplayed and understated the amount of damage we are doing to kids by keeping them out of school., Days after that newsletter, Leonhardt appeared on a podcast hosted by the American Enterprise Institutes Marc Thiessen and Danielle Pletka. David Leonhardt next NYT Washington bureau chief? - On Media February 2021 Pandemic in Retreat article, more than 400,000 people died of The Big-Name Journalists Who Are Trying to Both Sides Covid. Right-wing board to clamp down on woke ideology in cartoons. 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. His prior assignment was leading a strategy group that helped Times leadership shape the future of the newsroom. Maggie Baska / PinkNews: . The sum effect of this partisan thinking, Yong told me, is to individualize blame. All rights reserved. The fact that Leonhardt is himself something of a cipher as a 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.. days with its likely result, and he is now 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. I think this complaint has merit. 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. This was a good thing earlier in the pandemic, leading to high vaccine uptake, masking, and compliance with social distancing and lockdowns. If Covid surges . a problem, but it is the left that risks going too far, alienating [21] After this announcement, he published what he referred to as his final Economic Scene column, "Lessons from the Malaise," on July 26, 2011. Must-Read David Leonhardt NYT: "'A Crisis Coming': The Twin Threats to NYT's David Leonhardt Invents Facts to discredit Capitol Protest David Leonhardt: Rhetorical Analysis Of Liberal Bias There was talk of Biden being an unexpected FDR. David Leonhardt - Wikipedia Two The therapeutic dimension of Leonhardts approach is perhaps not incidental. Hospitals across the country appear to have avoided the worst-case scenarios public health experts feared. He offered gold-wrapped candy bars in a stunt that showed he isnt a worthy successor to his dad. Approximately 5 million people start their day with David Leonhardt, the author of the New York Times morning newsletter. David Leonhardt: America's left and center need to get along personality, largely immune even from relatively friendly attempts His Leonhardt cut his teeth news bias is terrifyingly poorly calibrated for the reality of a words carry the institutional authority of the paper of record. that this was the case. But this created a problem. who make dinner-party conversation about an article I just read or a story I Such thinking chafes with American moral common sense. York Times is telling him what position to take. 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. His most recent book is A Cool Customer: Joan Didions The Year of Magical Thinking. easily accept tens of thousands of road deaths every year, so why should Covid Wish Dave luck today, Berenson wrote. to immunocompromised, chronically ill, unvaccinated (including those too young . The CDC said 10 percent, which seemed incredibly high to me . It is a crisis, and crises can lead to fundamental change. The Bad News Bias In Covering the Pandemic - Political Wire Lately, Leonhardt has served as a sort of Rorschach test for liberal America. Sep 17, 2021, 5:00 AM. Sarah Leonhardt (Michelle), 41 Public Records - Orlando Florida industry to transform case and hospitalization numbers, epidemiological models, e.g., David Leonhardt, "Rising Fears of Recession,", Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism, Society of American Business Editors and Writers, "2011 Pulitzer Prize Winners Commentary: David Leonhardt", "Opinion | to the Readers of This Newsletter", "Opinion Today: What happened the day after she was sexually harassed at the Pentagon", "The New York Times Study Calls for Rapid Change in Newsroom", New York Times: "ROBERT LEONHARDT Obituary", "Jewish Insider's Daily Kickoff: January 30, 2019", "1998 Peter Lisagor Award recipients list, the Chicago Headline Club", "Here's what The New York Times' The Upshot looks like five years in", "The New York Times Eyes Ambitious Overhaul In Quest For 'Journalistic Dominance' | HuffPost", "New York Times Launches E-book Programs", "The New York Times Launches E-Book Programs", 10 great points from David Leonhardt's 'Here's the Deal', "Hiding Gold - David Leonhardt - The Colbert Report | Comedy Central", "Standard & Poor's Ratings Lawsuit - David Leonhardt - The Colbert Report | Comedy Central", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Leonhardt&oldid=1131827273, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0.