Former New York Times columnist claims media, ex-employer 'sane-washing' coverage of Trump administration

Former New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said Monday that his paper and the conventional media as a whole are "sane-washing" President Donald Trump during an interview on MSNBC.

"Do you feel that The New York Times and other media, quite frankly, are taking up the right approach and being sort of without fear or favor, able to cover this administration, which has threatened journalists, which is, as we’ve covered, going after the rule of law in various ways. Is there any thoughts you want to share about that at your former employer at the Times, or how the journalistic community should approach this right now?" MSNBC's Ari Melber asked. 

Krugman left The New York Times in December and said in a substack post in late January that his "relationship" with the paper had "degenerated to a point" where he could not stay.

Krugman, who said he was dependent on the conventional news media and even reporting from the NYT, argued there was "sane-washing" going on and said he was happy to be free to "be able to talk about this stuff without trying to sound moderate and sensible."

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"Definitely an unwillingness to just flatly report, and we have crazy stuff that was true during the campaigns, even more so now. And it really, if all you do is read the papers, then you don’t, you don’t get all of that," Krugman said. "These are not moderate and sensible times."

The former NYT columnist wrote about economic issues and policies for the paper for 25 years, including during President Biden's term, when inflation and prices skyrocketed. While Krugman maintained earlier in Biden's term that inflation would not get out of hand, he wrote in July 2022 that he was wrong.

Krugman wrote in a post for The Contrarian, a Substack created by former Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin and frequent CNN guest Norm Eisen, that the editing process for his columns became much more "intrusive" throughout the 2024 election year. 

 "I went from one level of editing to three, with an immediate editor and his superior both weighing in on the column, and sometimes doing substantial rewrites before it went to copy. These rewrites almost invariably involved toning down, introducing unnecessary qualifiers, and, as I saw it, false equivalence. I would rewrite the rewrites to restore the essence of my original argument," he wrote.

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MSNBC's Melber followed up with Krugman and asked him directly if he felt that "sane-washing" was occurring at The New York Times.

"Yes, I mean I'm sorry, I don't want to trash my employer. Do not drop your subscription to The New York Times as an essential news source," he said. "Mostly it takes the form of a sort of flattening, that everything becomes, you don’t get the full sense."

Krugman suggested the media was downplaying the news, or including what he feels are key details further down in certain reporting. 

"If you read about Elon Musk’s attack on USAID – the critical agency – did you read that he called it ‘evil,’ that he said all of the staff are left-wing Marxists who hate America?" Krugman said, providing an example. "You probably may not have seen that, or it was downplayed. It was in paragraph 19. And that’s what I don’t think the media are adequately conveying about what’s happening now."

The NYT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.