Introducing Our New Columnist

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/opinion/introducing-our-new-columnist.html

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I wanted to call your attention to our new columnist, Bret Stephens, whose first piece appears today. Bret, the winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, has joined us from The Wall Street Journal, where he wrote the Global View column and also served as deputy editorial page editor. For a sense of how Bret thinks about his role as a columnist — of the kind of judgment he feels he owes readers — you might read this column he wrote for the Journal after Donald Trump was elected.

Our colleague Nick Kristof welcomed Bret to The Times earlier this week with a conversation on Facebook Live, which you can watch here. As Nick makes clear in the video, he and Bret disagree on a lot of things, from how to think about American policy in the Middle East to how best to address climate change. And as both writers note, that’s a good thing; as strong-minded and open-minded people, they welcome the debate.

When Adolph Ochs set out the mission for The New York Times at the end of the 19th century, he said he hoped to make its opinion pages a forum for “intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.” Given how polarizing and partisan this era has become, we think it’s important to recommit ourselves to that goal. Taking the goal seriously doesn’t mean letting any opinion into the debate. There’s no place for bigotry or dishonesty in intelligent discussion. And it also doesn’t mean that The Times views all the points of view it publishes as equally meritorious — that we’re in some way indifferent, in the end, to the correct answers. Our unsigned editorials will continue to make clear where the institution stands on the most consequential questions.

But, particularly during this turbulent and searching time in America and around the world, we should have the humility to recognize we may not be right about everything and the courage to test our own assumptions and arguments. In the Opinion pages of The Times, I believe the best way to do that, and to serve you, is to foster collegial debate among brave, honest journalists with very different points of view.

I’m thrilled that Bret has agreed to join this project. In addition to a wide range of views from outside writers, you can expect other additions to our regular roster in coming months as we continue to diversify our lineup and enrich our debate.