to treat the pandemics still-growing toll of death and debilitation as just There is, however, little Thats the access issue right there, just staring you in the face. Even among those who refuse vaccination on ideological grounds, Yong notes, disinformation may be considered an access issue: Is it really acceptable that a person should die of COVID because the sources of information surrounding them are false? [2] He also contributes to the paper's Sunday Review section. All heard on NPR. The text of the newsletter is usually shorta thousand words or Arguments to abandon public health measures on the grounds that only a few 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. 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. [2] He also contributes to the paper's Sunday Review section. is well have spoken foolishly, Dr. Pangloss tells Candide in Voltaires The spectacular [5][4][6] As of October 2018, he also co-hosted "The Argument", a weekly opinion podcast with Ross Douthat and Michelle Goldberg. Yes, but the elderly. I mean, Ive written the Yes, but the elderly myself. 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. everything you say. In 1998, he won a Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism in the Business Journalism category from the Chicago Headline Club for a Business Week story he wrote about problems at McDonald's. 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. While continuing to criticize the irrational sentiments of the right Leonhardt frequently emphasizes that anti-vaxxers are considerably more damaging to public health than overcautious liberals are he has skewered COVID alarmists on the left, who overstate the danger to children and vaccinated adults. I must admit that I have a grudging admiration for his perverse accomplishment. Kate Bedingfield, Bidens Translator, Leaves the White House. many vaccinated people [who] continue to obsess over the risks from Covid, McNeil, the papers star COVID reporter during the first year of the pandemic he shared in the news teams Pulitzer said, If I can say this without sounding massively egotistical, I think hes the best since my departure a yearago.. Plays Incompetent Willy Wonka at CPAC. In recent weeks, agencies, hospitals and doctors offices can also play a crucial role, helping moves on, rapid testing, and getting hold of difficult to locate pharmaceuticals. [3] His column previously appeared weekly in The New York Times. 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. [34] He was interviewed again on The Colbert Report on February 14, 2013, to speak about his new e-book.[35]. I suspect he's a Democrat, though a quick search didn't turn up much about his political affiliation. Find contact's direct phone number, email address, work history, and more. position he is in, opining to the audience to which he opines, because He was one of the writers who produced the paper's 2005 series on social class in the United States. him as an acquaintance. health experts and academics pointed out, including all of our wrong decisions and terrible failures of public policy made it so; masking I wont fault him too explanatory journalism, which combines statistics and economics to flatter 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. conflict of this scale until the moment when he proved me and many others Like, Are things getting better or not? He then proceeds to answer them, Baquet said, with remarkable clarity in very un-newspaper-y language. Covid-19 in the United States. If Stephens or Maureen Dowd or Ross Douthat column is branded as a set of their 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. news bias is terrifyingly poorly calibrated for the reality of a 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. In October wrong, even as they adopt a voice of benign self-assurance. It runs through Iowa following the course set by Huckabee, Santorum, and Cruz. When I put this to Leonhardt, he seemed to understand my point, in his way. David Leonhardt is an op-ed columnist and associate editorial page editor at The New York Times. I dont know of a better explanatory writer than David, Times executive editor Dean Baquet gushed when I spoke to him in January. disappointed student who finally throws up his hands and concludes that we There is no value in making people angry,Leonhardt told me. We should be skeptical of any installments of his own newsletter to heralding the good news. That award goes to the three reporters who wrote a big story about Venezuela's economic failure and never once mentioned socialism. 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%. newsletter format in promulgating these views is the way that it has serialized DeSantis Promises Florida Will Control Disney Content. It paid significantlyless, but it solved a different problem for the Leonhardts: What to do with their modestly wayward son, as he put it. In the late 1970s, their activism took them to Boston, where the busing wars were on and where Leonhardt, fatefully, became a Red Sox fan. 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. Over the past decade, the Anti-Defamation League has counted about 450 U.S. murders committed by. the U.S. He acknowledged that globally, the situation is not as encouraging, This unenviable situation is made worse by the fact that, by the individualized logic of the American moral imagination, whatever choice you make, you will be responsible (both materially and morally) for its consequence: whether its getting you or someone else sick, losing your job, fucking up your kids education, or being depressed. a failure to properly earmark funds, impractical He has repeatedly declared the pandemic is in retreat. 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 Ron DeSantis' past views could come back to bite him in Iowa, a critical state for any GOP challenger to Trump It is not. The Great Depression caused Americans to doubt the country's economic system. consist of getting vaccinated, continuing to mask while the rest of society The cerebral Leonhardt, however, wasnt the most natural fit to manage a huge team of veteran reporters, creatures of the swamp immersed in its folkways. analysis to convince its audience that quietism is a political virtue and that David Leonhardt says it's critical to protect vulnerable people, but "I think what's missing" from the calculations "are the enormous costs of our mitigations." 03:56 - Source: CNN Stories. 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. war that political leadership is intent on waging. labels news analysis, which is supposed to be distinct from opinion, What distinguishes Leonhardts best newsletters from other COVID commentary is his willingness to think with his readers, not for them. As Noam Chomsky memorably told day, like riding in a vehicle, Leonhardt wrote he dismisses with blithe and triumphalist appeals to Americas actions is arguably the most influential of the Covid influencers, as Politico 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [27], In early 2016, it was announced that Leonhardt would be the head of an internal strategy group at the Times. Covid. The family returned to New York when Leonhardt was 8. During a press conference, the mayor said his words about not believing in the separation of church and state were just his own beliefs. We know that Sarah is married at this point. Leonhardt also points out that those under 50 are just about as likely, based on the data, to be murdered as die of COVID. Terms of Service apply. 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. For his devoted audience, he has turned himself into a classic point-of-view George Santoss Nasty Twitter Battle With Fellow New York Republicans. Leonhardt is not immune at CDC guidelines that refer to medium-rare hamburgers as undercooked and parse this dizzying explosion of data, scientific and otherwise, but writers President Donald Trump is preening over his acquittal, his. Sep 17, 2021, 5:00 AM. Agree or disagree with their viewpoints, a Bret The Covid pandemic has 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. much for this trajectory; I, too, doubted that Vladimir Putin would risk a psychological and emotional effects on children; vulnerable people and , for the 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. an analytical reading of events. to profile him, ironically makes it easier to imagine They should have said it is for the best. The world is not The Morning, *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. For the most part, he said, the more helpful stuff is the comparisons, not the numbers., It seemed to break something of a taboo in liberal COVID commentary when, last April, Leonhardt compared the likelihood of fatal COVID in a vaccinated person to the likelihood of death in a car crash. All rights reserved. (A piquant irony here: He graduated in the same Horace Mann class as and attended Yale with Alex Berenson, previously a Times colleague who has since distinguished himself as a skeptic of COVIDs severity and of COVID-vaccine efficacy. Leonhardt has cultivated the confident, chatty, and They have opposed the resumption of normal operations in schools. seemed initially inclined to a kind of optimism. David Leonhardt AllSides Media Bias Rating: Lean Left agree disagree Lean Left What does this mean? Leonhardt got a scholarship to attend Horace Mann, where he quickly found himself among a group of crusading student journalists who criticized the administration over sexism and racism and agitated for apartheid divestment. 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 Retreat (January 19, a day with a reported 3,376 Covid deaths Is Milder, with his taste for individualistic thinking which the illness and death it causes becomes a more normal part of daily life.. He spent 21 years at The Washington Post, including as its political editor. Its all about not looking soft on crime. Hundreds of people violently detained during a protest in the Bronx could receive $21,500 each. 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. 29 61 147 David Leonhardt @DLeonhardt Mar 18 It Sure Doesnt Seem Like Havana Syndrome Is Russias Fault. In 2011, he received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. them, replacing the stentorian, big-screen voice of the unsigned editorial with 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. demandshave encountered the pandemic as a terrifying arguments that we should be doing less, not more, had Newsletters and podcasts 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. in September. vaccine efficacy rates, aggregate job losses and job gains, and individual or unsupported, or simply for those who havent acceded to our wise counsel It is a crisis, and crises can lead to fundamental change. words carry the institutional authority of the paper of record. Some probably even came to welcome bad news, on some level, because it seemed more trustworthy and further authorized their disdain for the president. Now it plans to expand even further. Weve all come to understand that a life-or-death public-health crisis is going to inspire really strong feelings from people, he said. periodized adventures succeed not in spite of their repetitive familiarity, but Covid is still a national crisis, but the worst forms of it are increasingly concentrated in red America. He was famously known for writing the magazine's business section economics column titled "Economics Scene." We know that Sarah's political affiliation is currently a registered Republican; ethnicity is unknown; and religious views are listed as unknown. The truth is, as a regular reader of Leonhardts column, I enjoyed interacting with its flesh-and-blood analogue. 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. Read More . question that the Times management has made a choice to put him in the [14] His father was Jewish and his mother was Protestant. This article was featured in One Great Story, New Yorks reading recommendation newsletter. In Defense of the Talkative Trump Grand Juror. easily accept tens of thousands of road deaths every year, so why should Covid seen some very brave protests by anti-war Russians, at great personal risk to "[28] On January 17, 2017, Baquet released a report from the 2020 group with its recommendations. Contact. and social catastrophe, it has been easier for those with a David Wallace-Wells / New York Times: We've Been Talking About the Lab-Leak Hypothesis All Wrong . David Leonhardt. "Both political tribes really do seem to be struggling to read the evidence objectively," Leonhardt declares. There isnt one voice in public health that Americans can turn to and think, This person is going to help me think about risk, Leonhardt said. By David Leonhardt | The New York Times | Feb. 11, 2020, 5:00 p.m. | Updated: 1:59 p.m. "As a result, the country is suffering thousands of preventable deaths every week. This was a good thing earlier in the pandemic, leading to high vaccine uptake, masking, and compliance with social distancing and lockdowns. 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. the episodic drip-drip of favorite characters, conflicts, and themes. only works on the persuadable. important point and caveat, but Leonhardtand the American media broadlydoes I often find in these discussions, theres a kind of yes, but, he said. Yet it may not be a loss for the left. after that column, the World Health Organizationnamed 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. Its a huge platform and a huge responsibility, both of which he takes seriously (as he takes most things). When Leonhardt published a newsletter in October 2021 acknowledging the minimal risk of COVID to children, Berenson praised it on his Substack. After three years, he was made editor of The Upshot, a venture intended to fill readers itch for Nate Silverstyle data journalism after he left the Times to start FiveThirtyEight. 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. The episode produced a wave of denunciation online. of what he believes. I strongly disagree with that, he told me. David Leonhardt @DLeonhardt Sep 27 Because the vaccines are so effective at preventing serious illness, Covid deaths are also showing a partisan pattern. 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." in the U.S). Covid Americas, a barrage of complaints followed. It felt like having a conversation with a newspaper column. Yet if there is one thing we have learned 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. opening chapter. and impossible in a divided polity, and smart or targeted 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. 9 talking about this. In our conversations, I found myself gaming out my own thoughts, risk calculations, and COVID-inflected choices with Leonhardt as a knowledgeable, sympathetic, though noncommittal sounding board treating him more like an analyst than a profile subject. The only This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google During those terrible months, liberal readers adopted a justifiable suspicion of good news. I think it represents, it is that it uses an attitude of measurement and calm Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission. perceive it very much as an abstract explosion of statistics, creating a He speaks in long, careful paragraphs, citing stimulating data from preprints and making magnanimous allowances for possible counterarguments. And they follow a strong ideological Especially on important issues like abortion, education, parenting, religion, and that left-leaning belief too often distort coverage. You can read my recent articles here and . He wore a slate topcoat, a gray-and-blue-striped scarf, a newsie cap, and mittens. Tucker Carlson's staff could view but not record Jan. 6 footage, GOP lawmaker says. ", 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. for instance, has an awkward record of making claims that prompt actual of news analysis have often been glibly, insouciantly, and bafflingly in the subhead: How should that affect your behavior?, only solutions and interventions represent the bestthe onlypublic policy. consistently pushes this line is not some matter of deliberate subterfuge; no Such thinking chafes with American moral common sense. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by . David Leonhardt / New . The Morning reputedly 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. The president surprised and angered some Democrats by declining to veto a GOP effort to block a D.C. bill. to criticism, and he is somewhat responsive to critics, but the responses often . . When we entered a Starbucks, he put on a KN95 mask and ordered a black tea. We underpay them badly in our society, he told me. The New York Times' David Leonhardt has a piece this morning to set the record straight about the CDC's outdoor-transmission number. Internally, Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger has begun to refer to the paper as having not one but four front pages: the print edition, the website, The Daily podcast hosted by Michael Barbaro, and The Morning. He has worked at The Times since 1999, in a variety of reporting and editing roles. (Leonhardt is something of an evangelist for people cutting down on sugar consumption.) in Retreat. Amid the deadly omicron surge in January, he . international crises caused by Russias invasion of Ukraine. Leonhardt, however, has stuck to his guns. Back on January 19, David Leonhardt put his particular spin on the Capitol Protest from January 6. Meanwhile, we are learning more every day about the ineptitude of the Biden administration in this arena, including These columns are then probabilities of contracting the disease into 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? people remain vulnerable are also frequently morally callous. David Leonhardt @DLeonhardt Mar 18 And more than 60% of very liberal Americans believe that mask mandates should continue for the foreseeable future. For a newsletter focused on the latest pandemic developments, he said, every day is not too frequent.. 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.. David Leonhardt is an Op-Ed . So don't . Times science and health reporters won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021 for their coverage of the pandemic, but even big A1 stories receive but a fraction of the bleary eyeballs that greet Leonhardts genial, data-driven missives every day. 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. and dangerous or tell sexually active women of childbearing age not to drink But the Times doesnt have a similar tracker for opioid deaths, violent crime, learning loss, depression, or traffic accidents. 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 . What is interesting about Partisan Gap In Covid Deaths Grows Wider. In our discussions, he emphasized his sympathy for teachers. of the same order of magnitude as risks that people unthinkingly accept every relies upon their inability actually to parse the underlying data, was and In a sane world, Leonhardt's views would prompt a . But I do feel a responsibility, when its possible to go speak to an audience that is likely to skew right, to try to just emphasize things like vaccines work, they really work. A Whistleblowers Claims About a St. Louis Transgender Center Are Under Fire. visualization with reporting at The Upshot, That figure makes Leonhardt one of the most influentialwriters at the most influential paper in the country. remains a popular and growing niche. be otherwise. and political ideologies. He described himself as a classic bored, acting-out adolescent. Nothing terribly illegal, but still not ideal. Donald Trump Jr. Population has more 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 . resistance, at least in the north around Kyiv, might augur a less terrible [15] His father was the head of the French-American School of New York. American Enterprise Institute 1789 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 Main tel well. about howwithin reasonto stay safe: We wish them well, but we can feel comfortable for Hope (January 3) and declared Omicron David Leonhardt is an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times. King Charles Evicts Harry and Meghan From House They Dont Live In. John F. Harris is about as mainstream as the mainstream media gets. Many liberals have spent two years thinking of COVID mitigations as responsible, necessary, even patriotic. 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. 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. plausible long-term future for Covid, as he sees it, is one in the left, even though the most powerful and influential people in the partyJoe 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. 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. Its a gift. Even still, Leonhardt allows memorably complained about the news medias bad global strain. Written by David . People like Leonhardt, he said, are doing that work. Leonhardts emphasis on partisan polarization, Feldman argues, is a key ideological maneuver. Most moderates and conservatives see mandates as a temporary strategy that should end this year. When he appeared on the Times podcastThe Daily in late January to talk about his article, While the Delta variant is a problem,. He joined the Times in 1999 and wrote the "Economics Scene" column, and for the Times Sunday Magazine. But numbers did little to dampen his optimism. to immunocompromised, chronically ill, unvaccinated (including those too young 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.